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County To Pay Officers
To Take Drug Tests
Suffolk County
corrections officers are being paid a $1,000 bonus if they pass a
mandatory drug test.
News Center 5's
Janet Wu said that the extra pay -- for obeying the law -- is being
handed out despite a $6.5 billion budget deficit.
Suffolk County
Sheriff Richard Rouse said that paying corrections officers to take
drug tests was the only way he could get their cooperation and
insure his guards were clean. He said that it was simply the result
of contract negotiations with the unions.
The annual drug
test is given anytime during a two-month period around the officer's
birthday.
At the Nashua
Street Jail, they get the stipend only if they pass the test.
"I asked the union
to take the drug test voluntarily and they were unwilling.
Certainly, you have to have probable cause in order to drug test
someone. We thought this was a good compromise," Rouse said.
Union
representatives said that other law enforcement groups have similar
arrangements -- although their concessions from management may take
the form of college tuition and less obvious pay incentives.
"You're not paying
me to take a drug test. You are paying me to be held to a higher
standard. Our drug testing policy is as good as any police
department's policy, any law enforcement's policy, and anytime that
they negotiated a policy, they received something for it," Local 419
spokesman Robert Zoebisch said.
"Everyone who is
hired goes through a drug test, but if they slip and fall during
their career, we want to be sure that we know about it," Rouse
said.
Rouse said that
he's tested 700 guards and that so far, 12 flunked -- less than 2
percent of the staff. If they flunk, they're suspended without pay
for 45 days and they can be randomly tested for three years. If they
flunk twice, they can be fired. So far, no one has lost their job,
Wu said.
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