Do Police Officers Receive the Same Training?

Police officers can be specialists the same as lawyers and doctors. Many police officers are assigned to murder investigations or vice crimes. Others are assigned to SWAT teams or general traffic enforcement. A very select few officers are assigned to the local county DUI Task Force. Officers assigned to the local county DUI Task Force receive special training in DUI detection, field sobriety testing, drug recognition, and breath testing. Most of these officers also have video cameras in their vehicles to record the arrest and the field sobriety tests for use in trial. The Georgia State Patrol also has troopers that are assigned to what they call the "Heat Unit." Those officers also receive specialized detection training such as field sobriety testing, drug recognition, and blood, breath, and urine testing . All State Troopers in the "Heat Unit" have video in their police cars.

If arrested by a specially trained officer, you can expect the officer will more likely do a more comprehensive investigation of your case. This can lead to a greater likelihood of having the arrest sustained at trial. However, no police officer is perfect and these specially trained officers do make mistakes. If you get the best possible legal defense, you can still find potential problems with the arrest and the evidence against you. In addition, the extra training is a double edged sword for the officer because if the investigation is not compressive, it will be held against the better trained officer because frankly, more is expected by a person with more training.

On the other hand, the majority of officers that make an arrest are not specially trained in DUI detection. This does not mean they are untrained. It means that they are not specialists. There is nothing that prevents a police officer from making an arrest for a crime that he or she witnesses. So, most arrests are made my officers who only have the basic DUI detection skills they learned at the police academy. As a result, they can make mistakes in the gathering of evidence and the procedures they follow that can lead to procedural and factual defenses to the DUI case. It is important to get the case evaluated by the best possible Lawyer in order to explore any possible defenses.