Kannapolis Police Officers Complete Advanced DWI Training

Every year thousands of people are killed and many more are injured on our nations roadways. Sadly, many of these traffic injuries and deaths could have been avoided had one or more of the involved drivers not been impaired by alcohol or drugs. According to the Highway Safety Research Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, (www.hsrc.unc.edu/ncaf) there were 108,171 traffic crash related injuries in 2011; 1,208 of which were fatal injuries. Impaired driving was directly related to 8,561 of those injuries and 392 of the fatalities. As bad as that seems, these statistics are much better than in 2000 when there were a total of 12,656 impaired driving related injuries and 465 deaths. The improvement in these statistics can be attributed in part to better training and enforcement efforts by police officers throughout the state. In the early 1990s, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration developed the DWI Detection and Standardized Field Sobriety Testing (SFST) training for police officers. During this training, officers are taught advanced techniques for detecting impaired drivers and evidence gathering. These techniques include the training in the SFST battery of tests with particular attention and training being given to the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmous (HGN) test of the eyes. Officers are instructed on the administration of HGN, and the cause and effect of the clues they observe during this test. Three Kannapolis Police Officers recently completed this course of instruction, provided by veteran instructors from Rowan Cabarrus Community College. Officer C. D. Shaffer, Officer T. R. Everett, and Officer B. V. Worrell are among the several hundred officers working in Cabarrus and Rowan Counties who have received this training and will be using these techniques to detect impaired drivers on the streets of Kannapolis. Everyone at the Kannapolis Police Department would like to wish you a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday season. Please keep safety in mind during this holiday season and dont drink and drive. (GBR)