After more than a decade, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has stopped using a field testing kit for cocaine because it gives false positives.
Prosecutors, public defenders and others have been told about the issues because the unreliable results could affect their cases.
State Attorney’s Office spokesman David Chapman said prosecutors met with law enforcement Thursday to learn about issues with the Scott Company Presumptive Field Testing Kit.
“We immediately informed the Public Defender’s Office, Regional Conflict Counsel, the chief judge and local criminal defense bar of this development,” Chapman said. “We are conducting a thorough review of cases potentially implicated to determine what actions need to be taken moving forward to address this issue.”
The Sheriff’s Office says it learned Wednesday that Scott Company’s kits were giving false results during a drug investigation in the jail. A narcotics detective determined that multiple over-the-counter substances that were not cocaine were indicating false positives.
Source: https://jaxtoday.org/2023/09/29/sheriffs-office-drops-unreliable-cocaine-testing-kit/
