JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office will no longer use cocaine field testing kits after learning they return false positives for some common over-the-counter medications.
In a memo Wednesday, all JSO personnel were ordered to stop using the Scott Company cocaine kits immediately and to return any unused kits in their possession. The memo says if an officer encounters a substance they believe to be cocaine, they will now need to submit it for formal testing by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement lab and seek a warrant at a later date if it tests positive.
“This does not exclude the officer from making an arrest on another charge,” the memo states.
Field test results are not by themselves sufficient evidence to prosecute a drug possession case. If a case goes to trial, the suspected drugs must be tested by an official law enforcement laboratory, like FDLE.
However, a positive field test is enough for an officer to make an arrest, and defendants often plead in drug cases rather than take the cases to trial. So it’s possible false positives have resulted in wrongful arrests and convictions.
First Coast News spoke with defense attorney, Susan Cohen, who says, "If people entered please and attorneys suggested their clients enter a plea because of a field test was positive for cocaine, it could result in cases coming back."
It's not clear how many cases -- current or past -- could be impacted. First Coast News asked JSO when the agency learned about the unreliability of the tests, how many cases could be affected, and whether it was confident in field testing kits for other drugs.
JSO didn't respond directly to those questions, but issued a statement after this story published. It said in part, "JSO has no indication of any lack of efficacy or reliability of other field-testing kits."
The statement also said, "JSO is working with local prosecutors to identify any pending cases that may be impacted by yesterday’s false positive discovery. Because these kits are merely presumptive field tests, not used as evidence in criminal trials, there is no retrospective concern pertaining to disposed criminal cases."
First Coast News asked the State Attorney’s Office how many current criminal cases could be impacted, whether cases could be dropped or prior convictions subject to review.
A spokesperson sent a statement saying, "Following a meeting this morning with law enforcement, we became aware that field test kits for cocaine have resulted in false positives. We immediately informed the Public Defender’s Office, Regional Conflict Counsel, the Chief Judge, and local Criminal Defense Bar of this development. We are conducting a thorough review of cases potentially implicated to determine what actions need to be taken moving forward to address this issue.”
JSO said it will not resume use of the Scott Company cocaine tests and "is now exploring new product options for presumptive field-testing kits for cocaine for future use.
Ian Scott, the owner of the cocaine test kit company, told First Coast News he learned of the issue from JSO midday Thursday but was not told they had stopped using the kits altogether.
“There was no mention to me of them discontinuing the product,” Scott said in a telephone interview. “The first I’m hearing about that is from you, unfortunately.”
Scott said JSO told him about the existence of the problem, but not its magnitude.
“I have no sense of the scale,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s been one case or five. But I can’t imagine it’s horribly widespread.”
Scott says the phenomenon of false positives has been a known issue since the test was developed in 1974.
“A false positive is not an unknown phenomenon with field testing kits,” Scott said. “I can articulate that there are some medications that are used in common allergy medications that can produce that result.”
One chemical in particular, Diphenhydramine hydrochloride, sold under the brand name Benadryl, produces a false positive result.
Scott says that’s why the drug kits are not used to prosecute, just “to facilitate arrest and to help establish probable cause.” He said the risks of false positives are part of the free training his company officers law enforcement. He could not immediately say whether JSO availed itself of that training.
JSO released this statement late Thursday afternoon:
Yesterday afternoon, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office discovered that the Scott Company Presumptive Field-Testing Kits for Cocaine were indicating false positives. During a drug investigation in the Duval County Pre-Trial Detention Facility, a JSO narcotics detective identified that multiple over-the-counter substances, affirmatively known not to be Cocaine, were indicating false positives for the narcotic using the Scott Company Presumptive Field-Testing Kits for Cocaine. Once this narcotic detective identified these false positives, the investigator immediately made notifications up through the agency chain of command. In response, JSO leadership mandated that same afternoon that all police officers immediately cease any use of the Scott Company Presumptive Field-Testing Kits for Cocaine. Additionally, JSO promptly notified our partners at the State Attorney’s Office for the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Florida concerning the identified false positives. Earlier today, SAO leadership notified the Chief Judge for the Fourth Judicial Circuit of Florida and members of the local criminal defense bar of JSO’s discovery.
JSO has used Scott Company Presumptive Field-Testing Kits for Cocaine for over a decade without indication of any issue pertaining to efficacy and reliability. Many law enforcement agencies in Northeast Florida and across the country use and have used Scott Company Field-Testing Kits for Cocaine for many years without issue or incident. These kits were exclusively used as presumptive field tests, not for evidentiary purposes at criminal trials. JSO utilizes other test kits for other controlled substances. Currently, JSO has no indication of any lack of efficacy or reliability of other field-testing kits. Not only has JSO immediately ceased all use of Scott Company Presumptive Field-Testing Kits for Cocaine, but also the agency will not resume use of this product in the future.
JSO is working with local prosecutors to identify any pending cases that may be impacted by yesterday’s false positive discovery. Because these kits are merely presumptive field tests, not used as evidence in criminal trials, there is no retrospective concern pertaining to disposed criminal cases. Having immediately addressed this issue upon its discovery, JSO is now exploring new product options for presumptive field-testing kits for Cocaine for future use.