Thomas E. Page, Drug Recognition Expert, Emeritus
Thomas Page, the former Officer-in-Charge of the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) Unit, began his law enforcement career with the Detroit Police Department. Before undertaking a law enforcement career, Mr. Page served the Wayne County, Michigan Health Department for five years as a public health worker, focusing on alcohol and drug abuse issues.
Mr. Page assisted in the coordination of the 1985 Los Angeles Field Validation Test (173 case study) of the DRE Procedure. This study validated the effectiveness and reliability of a standardized and systematic approach to drug influence recognition. Mr. Page was also a member of the initial DRE curriculum development cadre that created the DRE course curricula.
Mr. Page has taught drug influence recognition and criminal justice topics to a wide range of audiences. They include: the National Judicial College, the California District Attorneys Association, the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, the National Advocacy Center, Northwestern University Traffic Institute, the Institute of Police Technology and Management, the California Department of Mental Health, the Swedish National Police Federation in Stockholm, the Russian Procuracy Training Academy in Moscow, the Victoria Police in Melbourne, Australia, the European Academy of Forensic Sciences in Turkey, the International Traffic Medicine Association, the U.S.Army, nurses, physicians, toxicologists, and private industry.
Mr. Page provides expert testimony in court on the effects of alcohol and drugs (including legal drugs), driving under the influence enforcement, drugs in the workplace, and the standardized field sobriety test (SFST), including horizontal gaze nystagmus. He has been accepted as an expert in courts in twenty-one of the United States.
Mr. Page served as the first General Chairperson of the DRE Section of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), and is a former member of IACP’s DRE Technical Advisory Panel. The DRE Section of the International Association of Chiefs of Police has awarded Mr. Page the title “Drug Recognition Expert Emeritus.” Mr. Page is a Life Member of the IACP, and the California Narcotics Officers Association. He is a member of the National Safety Council’s Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs, and is also a member of the International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety (ICADTS).
He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, and his Master of Arts degree in Urban Studies from the University of Detroit. He is a member of the University of Detroit Mercy’s College of Liberal Arts and Education Dean’s Advisory Board. Mr. Page holds a State of California lifetime college teaching credential.
- Driving Under the Influence Enforcement
- Standardized Field Sobriety Testing
- Drug Recognition Expert Program History and Development
- Drug Recognition Expert procedures
- Drug Recognition Expert reconstruction
- Training for Trainers for Law Enforcement Officers and Prosecutors
- The Signs and Symptoms of the Drugs of Abuse
- Drugs in the Workplace: Reasonable Suspicion training for Supervisors
- Effective Courtroom Testimony training for Police Officers
- Effective Report Writing for Police Officers
DRUG RECOGNITION EXPERT TRAINING PROVIDED
Coordinated and conducted approximately 100 Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) schools, including the first DRE schools to be held in Arizona, Virginia, Colorado, New York, the District of Columbia, Florida, Minnesota, Missouri, Wisconsin, and British Columbia, Canada.
Provided education on a variety of subjects related to drug influence issues, drug sign and symptoms, DRE procedures, drug-use trends, effective report writing, effective courtroom testimony and trial advocacy skills development on behalf of the following organizations (not all-inclusive):
- Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office
- Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office
- Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Conference
- Los Angeles Jail dispensary physicians and nurses
- Los Angeles County Department of Health Services
- Los Angeles Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
- Loma Linda University Medical Center
- Long Beach Memorial Hospital
- Los Angeles Occupational Health Nurses
- Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center
- UCLA Medical School, Doctoring curriculum
- Prosecuting Attorneys Associations in 20 plus states
- University of Wisconsin Law Center
- National Advocacy Center, Columbia, S.C.
- National District Attorneys Association Conference
- National Judicial College, Reno, NV
- National College for DUI Defense
- Michigan Magistrates Training conference
- California Association of Criminalists
- American Academy of Forensic Sciences
- Society of Forensic Toxicologists
- Illinois Judges Conference
DRUGS IN WORK PLACE TRAINING
Provided training on drugs in the work place issues to the following organizations (not all-inclusive):
- Security Pacific Bank, L.A
- Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
- California Department of Personnel Administration
- State of California State Prison supervisors
- Detroit Police Department
- City of Santa Monica Personnel Department
- City of Torrance, California
- ARCO Marine, Inc.
- City of Norwalk Transportation Department
- Metropolitan State Hospital, Norwalk, CA
- Chevron Chemical Company, L.A.
- California Department of Water Resources
- Patton State Hospital
- National Drug Free Workplace Conference
- Partnership for a Drug Free Workplace, Texas
- Rainbird Sprinklers, Inc.
- New York State Small Business Development Commission
ADDITIONAL SPECIALIZED PRESENTATIONS AND ACTIVITIES
Presented on drug influence issues and participated in related activities to the following organizations (not all-inclusive):
- Staff of U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Public Works and Transportation
- California State University, Drug Awareness Week, L.A.
- Staff of U.S. House of Representatives, Washington,
- Los Angeles City College
- National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
- Institute of Police Technology and Management, University of North Florida
- Northwestern University Traffic Institute
- New South Wales, Australia, Parliament
- Parliamentary Road Safety Committee, State of Victoria, Australia
- Addiction Research Center, DRE Validation Study, Baltimore, MD
- Swedish National Police Federation and College, Stockholm.
- Sweden Against Drugs Conference, Stockholm
- National DARE Officers Association Annual Conference
- National District Attorneys Association
- Alaska Peace Officers Association
- Russian Procuracy (prosecutors) Institute, Moscow, Russia
- TopCops Conference, Wisconsin
- Indiana Impaired Driving Conference
- Drug Recognition Detection and Deterrence Training, U.S. Army, Fort Wainwright, Alaska
- 1st Annual Pacific Rim Vehicular Homicide/DWI Conference, Guam
- Served on NHTSA curriculum development panel, Alexandria, Virginia, to develop training module on prescription and over-the-counter drugs.
- Institute of Forensic Medicine, Melbourne, Australia.
- National Homicide Symposium, sponsored by the California District Attorneys Association
- International Association of Forensic Sciences at UCLA
- Lead faculty member, Drugs 2000: Research, Enforcement, and Prosecution Conference, sponsored by the Southern California Research Institute.
- International Consultative Meeting on Drugs and Driving Impairment, Seattle, WA, 2000.
- California State University, Los Angeles. Guest lecturer at Master of Forensics program.
- SkyNarc Conference, faculty.
- Faculty member, Current Topics in Forensic Toxicology conference, UCLA extension course
- Hawaii Department of Transportation Traffic Safety Forum
- Inside Edition TV program interview, regarding DUI arrest of Diana Ross. On-camera interview, New York City.
- Inside Edition TV program broadcast regarding use of alcohol during work at construction sites
- California State University, Los Angeles. Guest instructor at Master of Forensics program.
- European Academy of Forensic Science, Triennial conference, Istanbul, Turkey
- Presenter, National College DUI Defense, Harvard Law School.
- Texas Drug and Alcohol Training Institute Conference, conducted workshop on “The Art and Science of DRE Reconstruction.”
- International Traffic Medicine Association Congress, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
- Pennsylvania DUI Conference, Champion, PA
- Instructor, British Columbia Institute of Technology, on-line class.
- Panelist, pre-broadcast, Public Television video, “Bloods and Crips: Made in America
- Instructor, ARIDE (Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement) Program, hosted by Michigan’s Office of Highway Safety Planning
- Guest speaker, University of Detroit Mercy, College of Liberal Arts & Education Alumni Week.
- Speaker, Illinois Judges DUI Conference, Naperville, IL
- Guest participant – presenter, Society of Forensic Toxicologists conference, Boston, MA, 2012.
- Guest lecturer, panel discussion on HGN, Field Sobriety Testing, and admissibility issues. Salve Regina University, Newport, RI.
- Guess presenter, AmeriCorps Urban Crime Initiative project, Detroit
- Guest, Wagner and Winick “On the Law.” Syndicated Radio program carried by VoiceAmericaBusiness. “Drug Recognition for DUI Arrests.” Syndicated on 9/8/16.
- “Recognizing the Drug-Impaired Person” Presented at the American BarAssociation, Traffic Court Seminar, 1986.
- “Systematic and Standardized Techniques to Identify the Alcohol and/or Drug-Impaired Driver”. Presented at the 35th International Congress on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Oslo, Norway, 1988.
- “The Drug Recognition Expert Program: Is it for me?” Official Proceedings of the 99th Annual Conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Detroit, Michigan, 1992.
- “The Drug-Impaired Driver: The Drug Recognition Expert Response.” Road Safety Committee Report, Parliament of State of Victoria, Australia, 1996
- Drug Information Handbook for the Criminal Justice Professional. Co-authored with Marcelline Burns, Ph.D., and Jerrold B. Leikin, M.D., Lexi-Comp, Hudson, Ohio, 1998.
- “The Drug Recognition Expert Officer: A Response to Drug-impaired Driving.” International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs, and Traffic Safety (ICADTS), Stockholm, Sweden, 2000.
- “The Drug Recognition Expert: Signs of Drug Impairment at Roadside.” International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs, and Traffic Safety (ICADTS), Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 2002.
- “The Classification of Drugs by Category.” Chapter one in Medical-Legal Aspects of Drugs, Marcelline Burns, Ph.D., editor. Lawyers and Judges Publishing Company, Inc., 2003.
- “Substance Abuse Module for the California District Attorney’s Association.” 2003.
- Drug Information Handbook for the Criminal Justice Professional. Second edition. Co-authored with Marcelline Burns, Ph.D., Lexi-Comp, and CopWare, publishers. 2004.
- Medical-Legal Aspects of Abused Substances: Old and New – Licit and Illicit. Co-author and co-editor with Marcelline Burns, Ph.D. Lawyers and Judges Publishing Company, Inc., 2005.
- “DREs: Indispensable Tool for ID of Drug-Impaired Drivers,” Clinical and Forensic Toxicology News, 2005.
- 2018 Spirit Award, Detroit Mercy Alumni Achievement, University of Detroit University
- Drug Recognition Expert Emeritus, by the International Association of Chiefs of Police
- CANDID (Citizens Against Drug-Impaired Driving) award for Education (First recipient)
- Los Angeles Police Department Citation for Drug Recognition Expert study
- Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Award for Outstanding Service
- Commended by Pennsylvania State Police for contributions to DUI enforcement
- Commended by the City of Phoenix, Arizona for assistance in a murder investigation.
- Numerous commendations from the Los Angeles Police Department for excellence of investigations, initiative, courtroom testimony, and presentations to law enforcement and other professionals.
- Upon retirement from the Los Angeles Police Department, commended by the Governor of California, the Mayor of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County District Attorney, the Los Angeles City Attorney, the U.S. House of Representatives;
- City of Detroit Distinguished Service Award
- City of Detroit Spirit of Detroit Award
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