Trenton To Reinstate Random Drug Testing
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Some city of Trenton employees will soon be undergoing random drug testing, and the city says it is to help keep you safe. “We haven’t drug tested in probably four years now,” said Chief Will Sanders of the Trenton Police Department. “For the last two or three months I have talked to the mayor about going back to drug testing.” Both the police chief and mayor said they are doing it to keep employees and citizens safe, because some operate machinery or drive. “We certainly don’t want an employee out working for the city who might cause somebody some injury,” said Mayor Tony Burriss. The city’s budget committee originally stopped the random drug testing because it cost more than $60 per test. Now, through the company U.S. Diagnostics, it only costs about $5 a test. “It’s a simple test,” Chief Sanders said. “The employee will give a urine specimen, and it’s analyzed immediately. It’s about 97 to 98 percent accurate.” It tests for about 12 different drugs. If the employee tests positive, and claims the test is wrong, they will get tested again at the hospital. “A lot of times if they know that there’s a possibility of being tested, it might deter anything that they might do to show up negative on a drug test,” Burriss said. A positive test could get an employee suspended or even terminated. Testing will start the first week of October.
