Joe David, a retired veteran of The California Highway Patrol (2003) and developer of the Desert Snow Training Program (1989) is considered one of the most recognized national experts in the area of highway criminal interdiction.
Throughout his career he was involved in over 600 major narcotics arrests, including just over fifty commercial vehicles, seizing tons of illegal substances and arresting hundreds of major criminals. He credits his success to the Desert Snow Traffic Stop, which he personally developed in 1989. This specific, systematic, professional vehicle stop has been adopted by numerous departments and by thousands of officers from throughout the United States and Canada because it offers maximum safety to the officer and person(s) stopped, while at the same time, allows the officer to identify major criminals in transit.
During his career with The California Highway Patrol, Officer David received over 100 awards from various associations, including the “California Governors Lifetime Achievement Award” (for the development of the Desert Snow Training Programs), The United States Commercial Vehicle “Officer of The Year Award”, numerous Drug Enforcement Administration awards, and a host of other much appreciated awards. He was also the first officer in the history of the California Highway Patrol to be nominated and selected as the Region 7 California Narcotics Officer of the year award.
While with the California Highway Patrol, Officer David was a canine handler for almost ten years and has often been credited with the development and expansion of the California Highway Patrol’s current canine program simply because of his success.
In 1989 Joe developed the Desert Snow Highway Interdiction Training Program. Desert Snow continues to be the subject matter expert in the area of identifying and apprehending smugglers, terrorists and other major criminals in both passenger and commercial vehicles (highway drug interdiction). The Desert Snow Training Program was the first training program to offer its students a hands-on experience to include vehicle searching. Unlike most other training programs the Desert Snow program is the original and was developed rather than copied.
The Desert Snow Training Programs contain over 70,000 lbs. of simulated drugs, explosives, improvised explosive devices, weapons of mass destruction, military ordnances, and bulk cash. This contraband is concealed within the Desert Snow Training vehicles just as officers would encounter them in the field. The fleet of commercial and passenger vehicles travel throughout the United States and are used to train law enforcement officers from all levels.
In 1990, Joe became an instructor for The El Paso Intelligence Center (DEA-EPIC) and represented The Drug Enforcement Administration by providing passenger vehicle highway interdiction training on their behalf.
In 1992, Joe became one of the original Drug Interdiction Assistance Program (DIAP) Instructors for commercial vehicles. He was also one of their first “train the trainer” instructors.
In 2004, Joe developed the Black Asphalt Electronic Networking & Notification System. This system enables over 25,000 law enforcement officers and investigators, from both The United States and Canada to share valuable roadside information in real time with each other, Fusion Centers, databases, investigators, and many more, all instantaneously and simultaneously. It is estimated that without the Black Asphalt system, almost 70% of roadside information gained from a typical roadside arrest would not be shared with anyone and therefore lost forever.
In 2005 Joe developed the largest vehicle concealment database in the United States, which contains photos and descriptions of thousands of concealment methods utilized in both passenger and commercial vehicles. It enables officers to quickly and accurately conduct thorough, non-intrusive, professional roadside vehicle searches, comparing the subject vehicle with photos and descriptions of concealment methods pertinent to the vehicle in question.
To date, The Desert Snow Training Programs have been attended by more than 45,000 law enforcement officers from around the world. In addition, the programs have been viewed by Governors, United States Senators, State Senators, Attorney Generals, District Attorneys, Judges, Homeland Security Personnel, and many more.
Joe David currently holds the position as President of both The Desert Snow Training Program and The Black Asphalt Electronic Networking & Notification System. He works closely with federal, state, and local law enforcement and has surrounded himself with a host of high quality personnel, who handle the day to day operations of both programs. With over 75 associate instructors, totaling over 1000 years of police experience, the Desert Snow Training Program remains the subject matter expert in the field of highway drug/contraband interdiction.
