Evaluation of the Impact of the Drug Evaluation and Classification Program on Enforcement and Adjudication
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Summary
This 1992 report by the Preusser Research Group, sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), evaluates the impact of the Drug Evaluation and Classification (DEC) Program on impaired driving enforcement and adjudication. The DEC program utilizes Drug Recognition Experts (DREs)—police officers trained to identify drug-induced impairment through a standardized 12-step evaluation process—to address cases where drivers exhibit impairment inconsistent with their blood alcohol concentration (BAC). The study was motivated by the need to determine whether the expansion of DEC programs improved the detection, prosecution, and conviction of drugged drivers, particularly those with low BAC levels who might otherwise be released. The researchers employed a comparative design involving eleven police agencies in Arizona, California, Colorado, New York, and Texas that had implemented DEC programs, alongside nine matched comparison agencies without such programs. Data were collected from 1987 through 1991, covering DWI arrests, BAC levels, DRE evaluation outcomes, and case dispositions. The study analyzed both direct impacts (drugged driving arrests and convictions) and indirect system-level impacts (overall DWI enforcement trends). Due to variations in record-keeping systems, some data required sampling or manual extraction from hard-copy records, and adjudication data availability varied by jurisdiction. Key findings indicated that the impact of DEC programs varied considerably across agencies. In some DEC sites, there was a lower mean BAC among DWI arrests, suggesting officers were arresting more impaired drivers with low alcohol levels. These agencies also recorded fewer low-BAC suspects being released ("not booked") and higher conviction rates for suspects with low BACs. DRE evaluations accounted for approximately 1.5% to 4% of all DWI arrests, with volume peaking during the first one to two years of program implementation before stabilizing. Across the study, 1,842 suspects were evaluated by DREs; the majority of DRE opinions regarding drug use were confirmed by toxicological laboratory tests, and most confirmed suspects were subsequently convicted. The study concludes that the DEC program provides a legally acceptable method for identifying and prosecuting drug-impaired drivers, thereby enhancing the enforcement system’s ability to handle cases involving drugs other than alcohol. The high accuracy of DRE opinions and the resulting conviction rates support the program’s validity. However, the variability in results suggests that program effectiveness depends on local implementation factors, including resource allocation, prosecutorial support, and court acceptance of DRE testimony. The report implies that while DEC is a valuable tool for addressing drugged driving, its full potential is realized only when integrated into a supportive legal and enforcement infrastructure.
Key finding
Drug Recognition Expert evaluations peaked at two to four percent of DWI arrests in the first one to two years before declining to about one and a half percent, with most expert opinions confirmed by chemical tests and resulting in convictions.
Methodology
field_study
Sample size: 1842
Provenance
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | rosap | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-23 |
| archive | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
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| embed | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-02 |
| enrich | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 19 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
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- Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation