In Cobb County, Georgia, don’t swerve over the line while driving. Officer Tracy Carroll, a trained “drug recognition expert” will pull you over and determine that a DUI has occurred, even if it hasn’t. That’s what happened to three different people last year while Officer Carroll was racking up arrests in order to win recognition awards as a drug expert. Three sober drivers were put into handcuffs and carted to jail, because of one zealous, arrogant man.
The local Atlanta news network launched an investigation into Carroll’s arrests after dashboard video showed him detaining three separate people who were later found to be sober. In fact, the Police Department is still backing him up, saying that observations are often more reliable than blood tests.
That’s right. Apparently, anyone who has the DRE training is able to determine is a person has used drugs and arrest them on the spot without any other proof. Although there are 12 steps necessary to require intoxication, Officer Carroll apparently feels like he can dispense with those. He can tell just by looking at someone if they’ve been smoking pot.
Katelyn Ebner was pulled over after a shift where she works as a server. She accidentally crossed the center line, which as everyone knows, is easy to do. After correcting, she was pulled over by Carroll. He administered a breathalyzer test, which came out negative. All indicators were clean. He then started asking her if she had smoked marijuana. She denied it.
“Okay. Well, you’re showing me indicators that you have been smoking marijuana, okay?” he is recorded saying before he immediately placed her under arrest. The dialog is unnerving.
“I’m going to jail for marijuana?” she asked.
Officer Carroll responded, “No, ma’am — not possession, unless I find any in your car. I believe you’re impaired by the marijuana you’ve smoked.”
She spent the night in jail, had her permit to serve alcohol revoked, and after four months of legal fees, the charges were dropped because her blood test was negative.
Almost exactly the same thing happened to nursing student, Princess Mbamara. After telling Carroll that she had never “smoked weed,” he placed her under arrest. The extensive toxicology test she took showed only the presence of the anesthetic contained in anti-itch creams.
The other victim was an Auburn University student. After he spent the night in jail, his urine tests showed that he was not under the influence. Officer Carroll is a one-man force out to pin drug use on any driver he considers a good mark for adding to his award tallies.
Georgia has more than 250 officers trained as DRE’s. These so-called experts are supposed to be able to detect drug use in drivers, but obviously, Officer Carroll takes his calling too seriously. He has arrested at least three innocent people out of the 90 he hauled to jail last year.
The training was started in the 1970’s in California. However, Fresno based lawyer Eric Schweitzer says the program is filled with police officers “masquerading as scientists.” Georgia criminal defense attorney, William Head, agrees. He said that police are basically relying on “pure guesswork.”
He added, “The case law around the country says that if a person has had this additional training, they’re allowed to get up [on the stand] and tell the jury that they have special training and detect things that even a doctor can’t detect.”
That seems pretty far-fetched and pretty much gives police the license to arrest whoever they want. Such unconstitutional oppression is outrageous. For three people in Georgia last year, it was a costly injustice.
Head viewed the recordings and explained that the videos reveal that Carroll didn’t even conduct the proper 12 steps. Carroll claimed that he cuffed the Auburn student because he established “probable cause,” but he tells Ebner that “several indicators” have led him to confirm that she used marijuana. “He did not go through all the protocols. He did part of them,” said Head. “[But] he went ahead and arrested her anyway on guesswork.”
Scientists and doctors know that sleep deprivation can mimic the signs of intoxication. However, Carroll detrimentally jumped to the wrong conclusion. None of the falsely accused will receive any compensation.
The Cobb County Police Department said they were looking “internally” into the events, but Carroll remains on duty. The so-called “drug-whisperer” has received numerous awards for his work, yet it came at the expense of innocent people who’ve suffered because of his arrogance.
According to Ebner, investigators alleged that Carroll followed procedure. They say her negative drug test was most likely wrong. How they could determine that is as sketchy as Carroll’s erroneous arrests.
“He’s getting praised for arresting innocent people,” she said. “I’m not saying all those people he arrested were innocent, but at least three of them were, and no one is doing anything about it.” The case is a sad one, and it looks like Carroll will continue to patrol the streets, over-zealously looking for more sober victims to add to his arrest numbers.