Police may face random drug tests

Friday, 5 September 2003 12:00 AM

Police officers in England and Wales could face random drug tests, according to reports.

Ministers booted the idea into touch last year but Hazel Blears, Home Office minister, has re-floated the controversial proposal again.

She will ask the Police Advisory Board to revisit the issue at the end of October following requests by the Superintendents Association.

Ms Blears told BBC Radio Four's The World Tonight programme: "We will be very interested to see what comes out of the board and we will look at the issue again then."

Jan Berry, the chair of the Police Federation, said more must be done to help police officers with drug problems.

She said a policy of random drug testing operating in isolation was unworkable.

"What I would much rather see is good supervision and good management providing welfare and support to officers that have got personal problems. Those personal problems can come in a variety of ways: it could be that they are alcohol dependent, it could be they are drug dependent."

She made the case for an occupational health system that provided police officers with "support and guidance."

However, Kevin Morris, the president of the Superintendent's Association, said the public must be reassured "clearly and categorically" that police officers were "fit and healthy."

He welcomed policies that "openly and honestly" confronted the growing illicit drug problem among officers.

He said it was always going to be the case that among 130,000 police officers some would be "tempted."

The comments come after British and Colombian police "cracked" a £4.4bn drugs and money-laundering ring in London.

Authorities arrested 14 alleged members of the ring - 10 in England, two in Colombia and two in Ecuador, said Colombia's attorney general's office.

Stocks and bonds were seized along with seven million pounds and drugs such as cocaine, marihuana ecstasy, speed.

The Metropolitan Police force mooted the idea back in August 2001.

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