Positive drug tests

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FOI/25/007698/N

Version Date: 10/03/2025

The Professional Standards Department have provided the following information.

Data Sources: CLUE / Centurion / Niche

Niche search for nominals who have employment recorded as "Police Officer" or "Police Civilian" and who have been linked as a "subject, suspect, arrested" in Drug or Alcohol related occurrences.

For each calendar year, 2022; 2023; 2024:

1) How many full-time serving police officers and members of staff were subject to random drug testing?

2022 – 32 Officers and 0 Staff.

2023 – 36 Officers and 10 Staff.

2024 – 26 Officers and 0 Staff.

2) How many positive results were returned from random drug tests?

2022 – 2 non-negative results (Officers).

2023 – 1 non-negative results (Officer). 

2024 – 3 non-negative results (Officer)

3) How many positive results of each drug type (Class A, B, C) were returned by random drugs tests? (Please specify drug if information available)

2022 - One non-negative result for Opiates, an additional test was conducted, and this provided a negative result (Officer).

2023 - One non-negative result for Opiates, an additional test was conducted, and this provided a negative result (Officer).

2024 - Three non-negative result for Opiates, additional tests were conducted, and this provided a negative result for all three (Officers).

4) How many full-time serving police officers or members of staff were caught under the influence or possession of drugs (outside of random drug testing)?

2022 – Nil return.

2023 – Nil return.

2024 – 1 Officer (possession of drugs). The items were tested and confirmed not to be controlled substances.

5) How many full-time serving police officers or members of staff were caught under the influence of alcohol while on-duty or before their shift?

Nil return.

6) How many full-time serving police officers had their employment terminated following a positive drug test or found to be under the influence of alcohol?

2022 – 1 Officer.

2023 – 1 Officer suspended.

2024 – Nil return.