MORE police officers need to be trained to test drug-drivers and remove them from Wodonga roads, according to member for Benambra Bill Tilley.
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Statistics recently released to The Border Mail show 76.5 per cent of drivers tested for drugs during an operation in Wodonga in April returned positive results.
Mr Tilley said while there wasn’t necessarily a spike in drug-driving — instead putting the results down to increased policing — more resources needed to be dedicated to catching drug-affected motorists.
Not all officers at Wodonga can conduct the roadside tests and subsequent police station tests.
“My view is that local police do an extraordinary job with the resources that are made available to them,” Mr Tilley said.
“The resources could be expanded by training police to conduct the tests.
“It would mean they wouldn’t have to call in other units to conduct the tests.”
Mr Tilley said when he was a serving policeman only a limited number of officers could conduct alcohol tests, which was significantly expanded.
While all police members can now conduct roadside alcohol tests, only officers with specialist training can conduct roadside drug tests.
However, specialist officers can be requested to attend when police suspect a driver is drug affected.
“I think it should be like breath testing,” Mr Tilley said.
“There should be quantities of drug tests in comparison to drink-driving tests made available to those on the frontline in order to keep drug-drivers off our roads.
“I think we need to broaden the training for police to be able to do the tests.”
Mr Tilley did not say if he would push for changes to be made but said “everything is up for conversation”.
He said he would welcome increased fines and penalties for those caught drug-driving.