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Kentucky State Police Drug Testing
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THE KENTUCKY STATE POLICE DRUG TESTING POLICY
By
W. Michael Troop
Acting Kentucky State Police Commissioner
Secretary of Justice
and
Jerry Lovitt
Major
Commander, Operations Division (East Branch)
Kentucky State Police
Today, it is no longer enough for a law enforcement agency
to claim that it is drug free; it must prove it. To this end,
the Kentucky State Police developed and implemented an employee
drug testing policy. This policy is an enhanced version of the
Kentucky State Government's policies that will help to promote
further the concept, and hopefully, the reality of a drug-free
workplace.
CREATING THE POLICY
Department administrators set out to make the drug testing
policy a product of employees. To begin, they appointed
representatives from the Trooper Advisory Panel and the Civilian
Advisory Panel, whose members are elected by sworn and civilian
employees respectively, to a Drug Testing Advisory Committee.
Then, employees from other areas of the agency, such as data
processing, the laboratory, personnel, and the Legal Office,
were also appointed to the committee. A Branch Commander from
the Operations Division headed the 16-member committee. After 4
months of research and planning, the committee formulated a drug
testing policy that was fair, workable, and one that ensured
employee privacy, integrity, and dignity throughout the testing
process.
The committee also developed a 20-page booklet to
communicate the key points of the drug policy to the employees.
And, prior to implementing the policy, a staff officer visited
each of the Kentucky State Police's 16 posts to present the
program to the employees and to address their questions and
concerns. Additionally, post and section commanders received
training in the drug testing program procedures.
THE DRUG TESTING PROCESS
Random Drug Testing
As of January 1, 1991, all sworn employees hired since
1984, when drug testing of job applicants began, and all
aircraft support personnel became subject to random drug
testing. Employees hired prior to 1984 are also subject to
random drug testing. Random drug testing of civilian employees
in certain safety-sensitive classifications, such as arson
investigations, communications, the forensic laboratory, and in
the armed facilities security section, will also become
mandatory in 1991. However, before an agency employee can be
randomly tested, written authorization is obtained on a
voluntary consent form. This form stipulates that the employee
agrees to be drug tested no less than once and no more than
twice over a 2-year period.
Specific Selection Drug Testing
In addition to a random drug testing policy, the committee
also set a specific selection drug testing policy. Under this
policy, drug testing is mandatory for the following groups of
employees:
* All sworn employee applicants
* Employees eligible for promotion
* Employees transferring into aircraft support
* Drug enforcement/special investigations staff members
* Special response team members and/or those involved in
drug interdiction work.
Drug testing is also required for any sworn employee upon
documented, reasonable suspicion of illegal drug use. If an
employee refuses to be tested for possible drug use, they are
then subject to disciplinary action. In addition, should an
employee be involved in an accident or critical incident, drug
testing is available upon request.
The Drug Test
Every Monday, the post and section commanders coordinate
the matching of employee names to individual identification
numbers--not Social Security numbers. Only those employees
subject to and available for random drug testing during a
particular week are assigned identification numbers. Then, the
identification numbers only are forwarded to the agency's
personnel branch for entry into a computer system. The computer
randomly selects a subset of the entered identification numbers,
and any employee whose identification number matches one of the
numbers that the computer selects will be drug tested within 5
working days. The selected employees post or section commanders
withholds notification of testing until the day of the test so
that drug testing is not compromised and that it occurs in a
timely and efficient manner.
Drug testing is performed through urinalysis. Only
Kentucky State Police Forensic Laboratory personnel and post or
section commanders are authorized to administer the drug tests.
At the time of the test, each employee is asked to complete a
more-detailed voluntary consent form. This enhanced consent
form: 1) Requests employee permission for a urine specimen to
be collected and tested; 2) describes the list of drugs for
which the specimen will be tested; 3) describes how the test
results will be used and to whom they may be communicated; 4)
delineates possible agency action if the test is positive; and
5) informs the employee of the consequences of violating any
testing procedure. The form also requests a list of any
medication the employee has taken over the last 15 days.
The employee is then handed a sealed, plastic specimen
container with a built-in thermometer. The employee provides
the urine specimen in a secured, private restroom. In the
interest of employee privacy, there are no witnesses, and
disrobing is not required. When the employee returns the filled
specimen container to the drug testing personnel, it is
immediately checked for temperature to ensure that the employee
has provided an authentic sample. Next, in the presence of the
employee, the specimen is divided into two containers. One of
the samples is held as a control sample in case an employee
would wish to verify positive results later with a laboratory of
their choosing.
Drug testing personnel then explain the chain-of-custody
form to the employee. Once the employee verifies the
information on this form, drug testing personnel seal the
specimen containers with lids and with tamper-proof sealing
tape. A label that identifies the specimens only by employee
identification number is affixed to each container. The
employee, after verifying that the identification number on the
specimen containers matches the identification number on the
list held by the post or section commander, signs off on this
list. Afterward, drug testing personnel forward the
chain-of-custody form and the specimen containers to the
Kentucky State Police Forensic Laboratory.
At the laboratory, each employee's specimen is checked for
possible tampering, logged in, and processed. A test tube
sample is also drawn from an original specimen and stored for
future testing, if needed. Several test tube samples are
batched together, of which approximately 20 percent will be
control samples for quality assurance checks.
Analysis
Immunoassay tests are used to screen the samples. These
tests serve to identify substances, such as proteins, through
their ability to stimulate physical responses from the body's
immune system. Each specimen is screened for marijuana,
cocaine, opiates, amphetamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepine,
and propoxyphene. It is also checked for the presence of other
elements to ensure the authenticity of the urine specimen.
The drug detection levels set in the agency's drug testing
policy are as follows:
* Marijuana--50 ng/ml
* Cocaine--300 ng/ml
* Opiates--300 ng/ml
* Amphetamines--300 ng/ml
* Benzodiazepine--300 ng/ml
* Propoxyphene--300 ng/ml
If the first screening of a particular specimen is positive,
a more-complex and expensive chemical analysis, such as gas
chromatography or mass spectrometry, is performed to confirm the
initial results of the immunoassay screening. If this test is
positive, the specimen is sent to an independent laboratory for
further analysis. A second positive confirmation will trigger
administrative and/or disciplinary action against the tested
employee.
Agency Response to Positive Test Results
All test results are sent directly to the Kentucky State
Police's Employee Assistance Program--the only place where an
identification number can be correlated to an employee's name.
From this point, a medical review officer, who is a physician
employed on a contract basis, meets privately with the employee
whose test results indicate unsanctioned drug use.
If the medical review officer finds no legal reason for the
positive test results, the physician notifies the Employee
Assistance Program. The Employee Assistance Program then
notifies the Internal Affairs Section, if the results concern a
sworn employee, or the Legal Office, if the results concern a
civilian employee. Internal Affairs or the Legal Office will
then contact the employee. The commissioner, who is empowered
to authorize an immediate nondisciplinary administrative leave
for the employee in question, is also informed of
"presumptive" positive test results.
Any employee found to be involved in illegal drug use faces
disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal. However,
for prescription drug misuse, the agency's emphasis is on
employee rehabilitation only. All employees, regardless of the
type of drug use violation, are required to make themselves
available to the Employee Assistance Program if referred to the
program by a supervisor. Employees may also be required to
complete satisfactorily a drug abuse assistance or treatment
program as a condition of continued employment.
In an effort to direct employees to the best available drug
abuse assistance or treatment programs, the Employee Assistance
Program maintains an updated list of drug abuse treatment
facilities nationwide.
CONCLUSION
The Kentucky State Police's drug testing policy is a
product of its employees. It provides what is believed to be a
total approach to the substance abuse issue, of which drug
testing is but one component. The policy also emphasizes
employee awareness/education programs; supervisor/manager
training; prohibitions against the use, sale, possession or
manufacture of illegal drugs; specific guidelines about the
misuse of alcohol and prescription drugs; employee and family
counseling through the Employee Assistance Program; and support
for long-term rehabilitation. As of February 1991, 98% of all
sworn employees have voluntarily submitted to drug testing. As
a whole, 84.4% of both sworn and civilian personnel within the
Kentucky State Police have been tested.
It is the Kentucky State Police's belief that the general
public has a right to expect a stricter accounting of law
enforcement employees concerning possible illegal drug use than
would routinely be expected of most government employees. Drug
testing of law enforcement employees is a small step to take
toward meeting that expectation. A law enforcement agency could
not deliver a stronger message to the public it serves.
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