Managing Director - Stephen G Collier. B.Sc. Cert. Ed. Cert.DREI

Stephen served 30 years as a Police Officer with Northamptonshire Police, and completed his service as the training officer for the road policing unit. Having a wealth of experience in Road Traffic Law Enforcement, Stephen’s time in the Traffic Department, covered all disciplines. He was also secretary to the East Midlands Senior Traffic Officers conference where he gained strategic knowledge of Road Policing.

During his time as the Road Policing Training Officer, Stephen developed a variety of training courses for the Road Policing Unit from Road Death Investigation, to the ACPO Drug Drive Impairment Testing Training.

Stephen was trained in the United States as a Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) and attained the coveted DRE Instructors Certificate, making him the first Certified DRE and DRE Instructor outside North America. Since 1998, Stephen was involved in and remains involved in the development of drug driving testing techniques. He developed the National Drug Drive Instructor Training for Field Impairment Testing and Drug Influence Recognition on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Department for Transport. He was the Principal National Trainer for the course and teaches these techniques to police officers around the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the United States.

He is instrumental in the continued development of this training for operational police officers and police trainers, and also sits on the Dept for Transport training group on Drink, Drugs & Driving. The technique has been awarded the BS EN ISO 9001:2000 standard.

Since retiring from the Police Service, Stephen set up a training & development organisation called Drug Abuse Recognition Consultancy (DARCON). Following the success of this company and the diverse subjects that the company now provides learning in, he decided that a change or company name was required. Blueknight Learning now specialises not only in drug and alcohol abuse recognition, but also includes occupational road risk, road transport safety,and corporate management training, in all business sectors.

Stephen is an Associate Member of ‘Drug Scope’, an Associate of the Society for the study of Addiction, and a member of the Federation of Drug & Alcohol Professionals (FDAP). He is also an Associate of the Parliamentary Advisory Counsel on Transport Safety (PACTS) and a member of the Society of Expert Witnesses. His company is also an accredited training provider to the Faculty of Forensic & Legal Medicine.

He is an Associate Lecturer at Cranfield University, delivering drug awareness training.

Stephen has been published in

• ‘Forensic Practice in Criminal Cases, published by The Law Society co-author chapter 14 (Drugs, Toxicology and related areas of expertise)

• The Encyclopaedia of Forensic Medicine chapter on drug impairment co-author

• The Field Impairment Testing & Drug Influence Recognition Aide Memoir (His own book)

• The Police Review (2 articles on FIT) • The DRE (in the USA)

• Drugs & Alcohol Today June 2007 edition

• Drinking & Driving: a road safety manual for decision makers & practitioners. (Principle Co-Author)

Stephen has a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree, a Certificate in Post Compulsory Education (Cert.Ed.), and a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) in Training & Development.