Georgia police used faulty drug testing tool that sent people to jail
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Georgia police are arresting people at record numbers based on false-positive drug tests from things like an air freshener or vitamins found in vehicles, Fox 5 reports.
—Investigation into fatal police shooting of Stephon Clark in grandparents’ backyard completed—
The FOX 5 I-Team uncovered that a popular drug test kit used by police was wrong more than 140 times across the state – in just one year. The positive results are sending people to jail with felony drug charges only to be dismissed later.
The two dollar NIK tests are proving to be problematic. An officer conducts a test by dropping bits of whatever substance he finds to be suspicious into a packet. He then “breaks three ampules of chemicals in a particular order and then watches to see whether the solution matches the color preprinted on the package,” according to the outlet.
According to the investigative report:
“The FOX 5 I-Team obtained every negative drug test report from the GBI Crime Lab in 2017, then researched to find out how many of those cases began with a positive NIK test. We confirmed 145 false positives, wrongly implicating Georgians of all races in all parts of our state. The field tests got it wrong 11 times for heroin, 24 times for ecstasy, 40 times for cocaine and 64 times for methamphetamines. The remainder involved false positives for other drugs like fentanyl, amphetamines. In each case, the charges were ultimately dropped. But the damage had already been done.”
In one particular case, a 19-year-old was pulled over for failure to maintain his lane in Villa Rica, Georgia. The teen was nervous and had just moved to Douglas County, but he was jailed after the officer found a substance and testes positive for methamphetamine.
The teen was arrested and charged with felony drug possession.
It took the family 18 months to fight the case. The white powdery substance, the mom said, was likely cleaning supplies from when they cleaned their daughter’s apartment, not drugs.
Fox 5 found that people were getting arrested after the NIK test gave positive results for things like drywall, soap, religious sand, weight gain powder, air freshener and candle wax.
