Two Officers Certified as Drug Recognition Experts

Beverly Police Officers Samuel Lane and Mark Panjwani recently completed a vigorous training program to become certified Drug Recognition Experts.

During the training, Lane and Panjwani attended 80 hours of classroom training, learning in depth how to identify if a person is impaired, and whether the impairment is related to drugs, alcohol, or a medical problem.

If the impairment was deemed to be drug related, the officers were then taught to classify the impairment into any of seven different drug categories.

After completion of the classroom portion, the officers went to the Maricopa County Sherriff’s facility located in Phoenix.

During this final phase of training Lane and Panjwani conducted D.R.E examinations on people brought into the Maricopa intake facility.

Based on examinations, officers were required to correctly identify what drug classification the person was impaired by.

To complete the training, 12 individual examinations had to be completed with 12 corresponding detailed reports, and a final knowledge exam, which took approximately seven hours to complete had to be passed.

As newly appointed Drug Recognition Experts, Lane and Panjwani can find impairment for the Beverly Police Department as well as surrounding communities that may need their assistance.