The Rhode Island Department of Transportation Office of Highway Safety (RIDOT/OHS) used grant funding from GHSA and the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility (Responsibility.org) to provide law enforcement training to enhance its efforts to combat drug impaired driving through a monthly training calendar for Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE) classes.
Prior to receiving this grant, RIDOT/OHS offered ARIDE training twice a year for approximately 17 officers per class. After this campaign kicked off, it hosted an ARIDE training course every month from September 2018 to June 2019 with the maximum enrollment of 15 officers per class, making it Rhode Island's most successful yearly training calendar in drug-impaired driving classes.
Working on the success of continued ARIDE trainings, RIDOT/OHS continued offering trainings in August 2019 and continued the trend of monthly classes instead of yearly.
Also, within the grant guidelines via an application and interview process, RIDOT/OHS chose three highly motivated law enforcement officers and one instructor to attend Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) school in Phoenix. Since becoming DRE certified, the officers have a combined effort of seven enforcement evaluations for suspected drugged driving arrests.