Crime & Safety
CoCo Sheriff's Office Gets Drug-Testing Machine For DUI Cases
The equipment can detect a multiple of substances often involved in DUI cases, the sheriff's office said.
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA — The Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office has received a $408,853 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety to buy a liquid chromatography mass spectrometer enabling testing to detect drugs in prospective DUI cases, a sheriff's spokesman said Tuesday.
The new equipment can detect illegal drugs, prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs commonly found in not only cases of driving under the influence of drugs, but also in cases involving drug-facilitated sexual assault being investigated by that office and by police agencies throughout Contra Costa County, as well as the larger criminal justice system.
"This will increase our efficiency and enable us to provide rapid results to law enforcement and prosecutors on (driving under the influence of drugs) cases in Contra Costa County," Sheriff David Livingston said in a statement.
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The purchase of the new mass spectrometer, along with the necessary training and testing, will likely take up to a year, according to the sheriff's office.
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