Drug addicts used in police training

Saturday, February 10, 2007

A training program in which officers observe volunteers who may be high on drugs, and is used in 30 U.S. states, has the Edmonton Police Service and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in a public relations nightmare.

Acting police chief Mike Bradshaw says "the training is meant to help police officers identify how people behave when they are on drugs."

Bradshaw is also quoted saying police did not provide the men and women - some of them prostitutes - with any drugs during a training session in December.

Cpl. Wayne Oakes of the RCMP clarified the issue of who gave the volunteers the drugs, claiming the police officers were not even present when the drugs were administered, the volunteers used their own drugs.

Bradshaw says the police asked the Metis Child and Family Services Society to provide the nine volunteers, however not all of them were aboriginal. They may or may not have been high during the session.

The volunteers were anonymous and were not promised anything in return for their participation.

An internal investigation has been launched into the program because of one complaint -- not from any of the volunteers -- although police said that's a standard procedure.

Sources

"Edmonton police defend drug training program" — CTV News, February 9, 2007
"Addicts take part in Edmonton police training" — CTV Calgary, February 9, 2007
Kerry Diotte. "Cop study flying high" — Edmonton Sun, February 9, 2007

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This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.