RANDOM DRUG TESTS OF POLICE PROPOSED

City attorney to review policy before vote

Drug testing for Conway Police Department employees may soon extend beyond
initial hiring if the Conway City Council approves a department proposal.
Police Chief Jerry Snowden presented to the council Tuesday night a policy
and procedure for testing employees.

However, the council held the request for implementation in committee until
City Attorney Michael Murphy has a chance to review the policy. Snowden's
proposal would call for the transfer of $3,570 from unappropriated reserves
to the general fund to start the drug-testing program. The money would be
used to immediately test all 119 department employees at a cost of $2,380
and establish a random selection of 50 percent of the staff per year at a
cost of $1,190. Annual cost beginning in 2000 would be $1,190. "I think we
owe it to the people we serve and to ourselves" to know the department is
drug free, Snowden said. He said drug testing is only done now upon initial
employment. Under the new policy, half of the staff would be randomly tested
each year, anyone transferring in or out of a narcotics assignment would be
tested and employees eligible for promotion would be tested. Testing could
also be done for "reasonable cause" and after certain accidents involving an
employee driving a department vehicle. The department proposes to contract
with Arkansas Medical Laboratory Inc. to do the testing.

The lab, which is associated with Baptist Medical Center in Little Rock, has
a Conway office on Locust Avenue. Each employee test would cost $20, and
AML would handle all testing procedures, random selection, chain of custody,
analysis and reporting. In response to a question from Alderman Bill Yates,
Snowden said the laboratory splits the original sample in two for a second
test if the first test comes up positive. Snowden said any employee who
tested positive during the initial testing of all employees would be
terminated.