DPS won’t search Ariz Corp Comm offices for drugs

The state Department of Public Safety has denied a request from Arizona’s top utility regulator to send a drug-sniffing dog to his office.

Arizona Corporation Commissioner Gary Pierce requested that DPS send one of its drug-sniffing dogs to the commission offices. That was after a tiny amount of marijuana was found in a private restroom only accessible to the five officials and their staff last week.

But the DPS decided it wasn’t a good use of resources.

DPS officials say that to use the dogs, there must be reasonable suspicion and probable cause for a search. They say the marijuana dust found in the common area at the offices didn’t warrant such a search.

The Arizona Republic says some commissioners and their policy advisers all took voluntary drug tests Thursday.