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Drunk driving arrests are down sharply after decades of aggressive enforcement while drugged driving arrests are climbing. That’s why Georgia has more than 250 officers with special 'Drug Recognition Expert' training. But the 11Alive Investigators discovered those 'experts' sometimes put innocent people behind bars.
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Officer Carroll: "You're giving me indicators that you have consumed marijuana, okay? So at this time, I believe that your failure to maintain lane was the reason for that -- so you're being placed under arrest for DUI, okay?"
The prosecutor filed a dismissal of the DUI-drug charge five months later: "Defendant performed well on FSEs (Field Sobriety Evaluations) and blood and urine were negative."
Three DUI drug arrests -- Three clean toxicology screenings -- One police officer: Cobb County Police Officer T.T. Carroll.
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The DRE Evaluation involves a dozen observations that allow officers not only to pronounce a driver is on drugs, but to identify which of seven types of drugs are in their system.
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Katelyn Ebner: "Sir, I can promise you, I have never -- please -- I have never smoked marijuana."
Officer Carroll: "Okay. Well, ma'am, you're giving me indicators -- several, several indicators -- that you have, okay?"
Katelyn Ebner: "Okay, so when I do a drug test, I'll be free to go, correct?"
Officer Carroll: "You're going to jail, ma'am. Okay? I don't have a magical drug test that I can give you right now."
"But he just did the 'magical drug test' that resulted in your arrest," Keefe said.
"Yes," Ebener said. "They're ruining people's lives."
Katelyn Ebner filed an Internal Affairs complaint against Officer Carroll.
Cobb County Investigators exonerated the officer and doubted Ebner's innocence, insisting, 'the marijuana could have already metabolized out of the blood.'
"When you brought up that you had a clean blood test when complaining to Internal Affairs, their answer was what?" Keefe asked.
"They said, 'Yeah, we see this happen all the time. Um, the test results come back wrong all the time,'" she said.
"So the test results were wrong?" Keefe asked.
"Yeah, that's what they said," Ebner replied. "The test results were wrong, and also, if I had a urine test, it would have come back positive for drugs."
But Katelyn got her own urine test the same week as her arrest -- scanning for any metabolites that would still be in her system. The urine test was also negative for marijuana -- or other drugs.
"This training is so powerful, that they believe they can detect drugs that a blood test will not detect," Keefe said. "Is that surprising to you?"
"That's extremely surprising," Princess Mbamara replied. "That's extremely surprising -- because this is my life that they're playing with."
Last week, Cobb County's DUI Task Force was awarded a trophy by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and Officer Carroll was given a Silver Medal for 90 DUI arrests during 2016.
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Officer Carroll: "You're giving me indicators that you have consumed marijuana, okay? So at this time, I believe that your failure to maintain lane was the reason for that -- so you're being placed under arrest for DUI, okay?"
The prosecutor filed a dismissal of the DUI-drug charge five months later: "Defendant performed well on FSEs (Field Sobriety Evaluations) and blood and urine were negative."
Three DUI drug arrests -- Three clean toxicology screenings -- One police officer: Cobb County Police Officer T.T. Carroll.
---
The DRE Evaluation involves a dozen observations that allow officers not only to pronounce a driver is on drugs, but to identify which of seven types of drugs are in their system.
---
Katelyn Ebner: "Sir, I can promise you, I have never -- please -- I have never smoked marijuana."
Officer Carroll: "Okay. Well, ma'am, you're giving me indicators -- several, several indicators -- that you have, okay?"
Katelyn Ebner: "Okay, so when I do a drug test, I'll be free to go, correct?"
Officer Carroll: "You're going to jail, ma'am. Okay? I don't have a magical drug test that I can give you right now."
"But he just did the 'magical drug test' that resulted in your arrest," Keefe said.
"Yes," Ebener said. "They're ruining people's lives."
Katelyn Ebner filed an Internal Affairs complaint against Officer Carroll.
Cobb County Investigators exonerated the officer and doubted Ebner's innocence, insisting, 'the marijuana could have already metabolized out of the blood.'
"When you brought up that you had a clean blood test when complaining to Internal Affairs, their answer was what?" Keefe asked.
"They said, 'Yeah, we see this happen all the time. Um, the test results come back wrong all the time,'" she said.
"So the test results were wrong?" Keefe asked.
"Yeah, that's what they said," Ebner replied. "The test results were wrong, and also, if I had a urine test, it would have come back positive for drugs."
But Katelyn got her own urine test the same week as her arrest -- scanning for any metabolites that would still be in her system. The urine test was also negative for marijuana -- or other drugs.
"This training is so powerful, that they believe they can detect drugs that a blood test will not detect," Keefe said. "Is that surprising to you?"
"That's extremely surprising," Princess Mbamara replied. "That's extremely surprising -- because this is my life that they're playing with."
Last week, Cobb County's DUI Task Force was awarded a trophy by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and Officer Carroll was given a Silver Medal for 90 DUI arrests during 2016.
