The Evansville Police Department, Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office, and the Newburgh Police Department are among 52 Indiana agencies receiving a new tool to help detect impaired drivers.
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The Indiana Criminal Justice Institute is providing the device, called the SoToxa Mobile Test System.
It’s a handheld analyzer that uses an oral fluid swab to detect the presence of illegal drugs including cocaine, methamphetamine, opiates, and cannabis.
On its website, the Institute said officers will use the SoToxa devices in response to an increase in drugged driving in the state and nationwide.
The institute pointed to a Governors Highway Safety Association report that found 44 percent of fatally injured drivers with known results tested positive for drugs in 2016, up from 28 percent a decade earlier.
Like a portable breathalyzer, the SoToxa test can be refused, and the results can’t be used as evidence in court.
But the institute says the test can help establish probable cause for an arrest.
