56% of drivers involved in serious injury and fatal crashes tested positive for a least one drug. I talked to Ari Briskman to get boots on the ground law enforcement perspective of drugged driving.

Sergeant Ari Briskman has served as a law enforcement officer since 2007. Ari is presently assigned full-time as the Commander of the Marine Unit for the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. Ari also serves the Sheriff’s Office as the Technical Crash Investigation Team Commander, the Auxiliary Deputy Unit Commander, and as a Public Information Officer.

Ari has dedicated much of his career to impaired driving enforcement and traffic safety. He is a certified Drug Recognition Expert, certified Drug Recognition Expert – Instructor, Standardized Field Sobriety Test Instructor, Seated Standardized Field Sobriety Test Instructor, and certified Crash Reconstruction Specialist. Ari has been recognized by courts in several counties in northern Illinois as an expert in the fields of alcohol and drug impairment.

Ari has personally apprehended over 600 impaired vehicle and boat operators throughout his career, for which he has been recognized several times by Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. He has consulted with and assisted in the prosecution of hundreds of additional impaired driving cases throughout Illinois.

Ari has been contracted with various Illinois training units as an instructor to teach all the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration impaired driving enforcement courses, the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators boating under the influence courses, and his own original material. Ari serves as an adjunct instructor for the Homeland Security Training Institute at the College of DuPage teaching course material on drug impairment in the workplace. Ari is also a senior consultant for Dynamic Impairment, LLC, for whom he provides consultancy services to private businesses and court litigants on drug policies and impairment recognition.

In addition to his law enforcement duties, Ari advocates for stronger impaired driving laws and protections for crash victims as a member of the Board of Directors of the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists. Ari also serves as a board member for the State of Illinois Impaired Driving Task Force and on the speaker’s bureau for the National Marijuana Initiative.

Ari holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Law Enforcement and Justice Administration and a Master of Arts degree in Public Safety Administration, both from Western Illinois University.