MESA'S RANDOM DRUG TESTS STRUCK DOWN

PHOENIX - The Arizona Supreme Court yesterday overturned a city's
policy of randomly drug testing firefighters, ruling that employees'
privacy rights trumped the city's desire to deter and detect substance
abuse. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by Mesa firefighter Craig W.
Petersen. He challenged the department's policy of requiring testing
without any suspicion aimed at individual firefighters.

The unanimous ruling overturned a split ruling by a Court of Appeals
panel and upheld one by a Maricopa County Superior Court judge.

Mesa's "generalized and unsubstantiated interest" in deterring and
detecting substance abuse among firefighters does not outweigh a
firefighter's Fourth Amendment rights, the Supreme Court said.

Though firefighters' privacy interests are reduced by the nature of
their jobs, random drug tests amount to searches that generally
require suspicion aimed at specific individuals or must be triggered
by specific circumstances such as accidents, the ruling said.

The Court of Appeals' 2-1 ruling in February said the compelling need
of cities to protect public safety outweighed firefighters' privacy
rights. "If firefighters must be ever-vigilant, we think the city can
be no less vigilant in detecting impaired firefighters and removing
them from the work force," Judge Edward C. Voss wrote for the majority.

The state high court's ruling was similar to one issued in June 2001
by the Alaska Supreme Court on Anchorage's drug test policy for
firefighters and police.

The Alaska court ruled that Anchorage's random testing constituted
unlawful search and seizure in violation of the state constitution.