Random drug testing for police officers is unconstitutional because:
*There would be less guns and badges out there to protect us.
*A department might have to answer for more liability lawsuits from the average citizen.
*A department would have to answer to where the missing drugs went.
*Because not all men are created “equal.”
*Because the average citizen that has higher standards to uphold.
*Wrongful death suits would increase.
*Because the last thing ANYONE would expect is that a police car that is running past the posted speed limit, with no running lights or sirens, that ran a light and hit another car, has a report to write while toxicology reports are given to the deceased person. The officer is then too busy to take those tests themselves, because they have a department to face, an attorney to hire, a review panel to face, and possibly a judge to face in the event of a lawsuit being filed for wrongful death.
*Because any mention of a drug “use” usually means that the department is willing to put that person through drug treatments paid by their insurance and “drug use ” isn’t the same as “drug abuse.” What they do in their personal lives could be argued doesn’t honestly effect their professional lives.
*Because many police officers that work narcotics have had to smoke or use drugs to “get in good ” with drug dealers and suppliers just to make a big bust.
*Last but not least… It’s unconstitutional “because the police officers say so.” Their word is gospel and if you thought that prisons were already overpopulated with drug users, sellers, dealers, suppliers and manufacturers, nothing could prepare us as a society to be given those results.
If taxpayers pay the salaries of police officers, they have a right to know that the person they pay to protect and serve them equally awaits the same justice as they would with any law that stands behind that badge, that gets broken. The last time I read, we all played by the same rules. Not all of us live in Vegas and would dare venture as to gamble with such odds. Most people don’t even know what their rights are when they are suspected of drug use, abuse, trafficking, etc. An officer that can so “easily” quote to me that the section of law that I’ve broken and can write that code on a ticket and hand it back within moments, he clearly has hold of the rulebook and not only does he get to go “first,” but he gets to roll the dice and decide my fate.
I get caught speeding, the first thing the Officer asks me for is my identification and in my state, my registration. The second thing he asks as I am retrieving those two items is “Do you know why I stopped you? ” ….then as the normal procedure goes “Do you know how fast you were going?”
If I answer with any other answer besides “NO” to either of those questions I have then began to cause “suspicion.” If I answer “yes” as to knowing why I’ve been stopped, then I get to humor the officer with heaven only knows what else I could guess? expired tags? inspection sticker? giving him more reason to find me of “suspicion.” If I appear nervous because I’ve never been pulled over, the officer is going to ask if I have a record, any outstanding warrants etc, all answers that he will learn soon enough once he runs my license number or social security number. Do I know how fast I was going? Now I feel like I’m being patronized or being asked to guess as to whether my cruise control was on, or if I’d been topping a hill and maybe I accelerated, or maybe I sped up to pass a car in another lane, or maybe I was going downhill and my speed increased – either way I am NOT about to play this game.
In my state if an officer feels I show any symptoms of being under the influence, whether that be nervousness, the present odor of marijuana, redness of the eyes, any little infraction that might “suggest” that I have used or that I am in possession of, gives the right to stop, question and search me as a citizen.
“THE LAW IS THE LAW IS THE LAW.” To better protect and serve me as a citizen, my community and the laws that you have sworn to protect. You are not above the law, simply because you studied law, sought employment in the field of law, and serve as the “law.”
Just as most drug dealers are caught by police on random stops, most police officers could easily face that same justice with a random test. If the average drug user gets NO warning before he is charged for use or the average employee gets NO warning of a random test and everyone in this world got some kind of warning that used drugs- WHY should police officers NOT be held to that same standard? Because he is privy to the information of knowing he will be given a drug test on such and such day? That answer just seems a bit unconstitutional to me.