NEWPORT BEACH : Police to Be Tested Regularly for Drugs

City police will begin taking random drug tests this month as part a new countywide effort.

The city’s force will join law enforcement agencies elsewhere in the county that have agreed to adopt testing policies by April.

“The department does not feel we have a drug problem,” said Sgt. Andy Gonis, police spokesman. “We’re doing this as a safeguard.”

Beginning later this month, randomly chosen officers will be given urine tests. Employees who are not sworn officers will not be tested.

The tests will be administered about once a month, and each member of the force will be tested about once or twice a year, Gonis said.

Drug investigators and others who have more frequent contact with drugs will probably be tested more frequently, he said.

There is no established disciplinary action for an officer who fails the urine tests, he said, so each such case would be handled individually by the police chief.