Pennsylvania Official Argues Local Police are in Need of More DUI Training

Recent reports presented by the Pennsylvania DUI Association in Harrisburg indicate that local law enforcement officers are not receiving the level of training necessary to successfully identify and arrest drunk drivers.

Last year alone, there were 53,717 DUI arrests in the state of Pennsylvania, a slight increase from last year's tally of 50,587 drunk driving arrests. In response to these statistics, George Geisler, the director of law enforcement personnel at the Pennsylvania DUI Association in Harrisburg stated, "Since DUI is the number one crime in the state, you would think you would have the number one amount of training for that crime." However, Geisler's assertion does not prove accurate. According to reports, state police are provided with a week's worth of academy training to detect, arrest, and prosecute drunk drivers, while municipal police officers are afforded less than a day of similar training at the academy.

While Geisler has voiced his opinion that local law enforcement officers are in desperate need of additional training in order to bring them up to the level of state police officers, not everyone agrees with his assertion. Lieutenant Scott Laird of the Springettsbury Township Police and Sergeant Rod Varner of the York Area Regional Police say that the driving under the influence training offered is more than sufficient for officers to successfully detect, arrest, and prosecute drunk driving offenders.

According to Laird and Varner, the most valuable portion of an officer's DUI education comes not from in class instruction, but from on-the-street experience. Following an officer's completion of the mandatory twenty week police academy training, most municipal police departments require that new officers complete twelve weeks of supervised field training before initiation onto the force, which was cited as yet another reason not to increase DUI training for local police officers.

Additionally, Laird and Varner asserted that there are safeguards in place in order to assist municipal law enforcement officers, which precludes the need for additional training.

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