Does Police Departments Drug Test?

Yes, of course. Police officers come up with public responsibility, and hence they undergo a drug test. This helps the police departments to ensure their drug-free status. Police officers might undergo a standard five-panel drug test. This blog will allow you to know about the drug test policy of police departments, the kind of drug test they undergo, and what if they fail their drug test.

Police Officers Drug Testing Policy

The police departments follow the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) Guidelines on conducting a drug test for their officers and staff. As per the NIDA’s drug testing guidelines, the police departments conduct a standard 5-panel urine drug test that checks for the below substances

1. Marijuana
2. Cocaine
3. PCP
4. Amphetamines
5. Opiates ( Natural, not synthetic)

The police officers might undergo a urine drug test or instant oral saliva drug test most of the time. The Police departments hardly conduct a hair drug test unless it is intended either by the court or by the authority to go for it.

Occasions when the Police Officers undergo a drug test

Police officers might undergo a pre-employment drug test after they get selected. Apart from that, they might also undergo periodic drug tests, random tests, and post-accident drug tests. The frequency of drug testing solely depends on the police departments. Some police departments may test their employees once every three or four months, whereas some departments might test once in 2 years.

How do Police Officers get drug tested?

The Police Officer drug testing is conducted the same manner as the DOT or any other private or corporate drug testing. The below points will describe how the police officers drug test is conducted.

1. Once you receive the employment offer at the police department, you will be scheduled for a drug test. You will have to pass your drug test to become a police officer.
2. The Urine specimen will be collected by the same organization where you apply for the job. Only the testing centers approved by the HHS are allowed to conduct the police officer drug testing.
3. The preliminary test is an immunoassay test. If it is positive, the tester will use the same sample for the confirmatory testing using the GC/MS method.
4. If the confirmatory test is positive, you may get rejected from being a police officer. This could be confirmed by the Medical Review Officer (MRO) after discussing your positive drug test.
5. Positive test results might be retained for five years. If you are a police officer and get positive results, the results might be retained for ten years, and you may lose your position as a police officer.

How to pass your police officer drug test?

If you are taking medications, you will have to indicate it to the tester or MRO so that you may get a chance to prove that it might be a false positive. Ensure that a certified medical professional recommends your medications. But the confirmatory tests hardly produce false positives, and if you get your positive results during the confirmatory test and cannot explain to your MRO, you might be doomed. It can be easy to pass your drug test if you have kept yourself away from illicit drugs.

Final words

If you aspire to be a police officer, you should know that police departments conduct drug tests per their drug testing policy and guidelines. You can quickly get past them if you keep yourself from taking illegal drugs.