What is a DRE or drug recognition expert?
A drug recognition expert is a law enforcement officer who has completed a specific training and certification program in a standardized evaluation process — a sequence of steps including vital signs taken at intervals, eye examinations, divided-attention exercises, an examination for injection sites, and an interview, leading to an opinion about the category of substance involved.
The designation says something. It doesn't say the officer is a medical professional, a toxicologist, or a scientist.
What defense counsel examines is compliance. The protocol is detailed and prescriptive, and it's frequently abbreviated in the field — steps skipped, vital signs taken once instead of at the required intervals, conditions that don't permit an accurate eye examination, or an evaluation conducted long after the driving.
The officer's own documentation records what was done. Comparing it against what the protocol requires is where these cases are made, and the gaps are more common than the certification implies.
The training is real. Whether the training was followed that night is a separate question. ---
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