Are Drug Field Tests Admissible in Court?

A field test is a police officer’s quick and inexpensive way to determine whether a suspicious substance is an illegal drug. But these tests have a high rate of false positives and can send innocent people to jail.

The tests can be inaccurate due to environmental factors such as heat and cold or the type of reactive chemical used. And some officers don’t receive enough training to perform them properly.

Probable Cause

Probable cause is the legal standard for a police officer to make an arrest or obtain a warrant for a search. It is a higher standard than reasonable suspicion, which can be established by a police officer based on his or her own observations, suspicions, or guesses.

To establish probable cause, the police must present information that is reliable and sufficient to provide a prudent person with reason to believe that a crime has been committed and that evidence of the crime will be found in a search. This information should also be supported by an affidavit that supplies reliable facts, information, or circumstances that are sufficient to prove that a crime has been committed and that the location to be searched contains evidence of the crime.

One way that a police officer can establish probable cause is through a tip that leads to an arrest. This may come from an informant who is credible and who has personal knowledge of the criminal activity being suspected. It can also be from a third-party witness who was present during the incident.

However, there are cases where the information provided by an informant is not enough to establish probable cause. For instance, a police officer could not make an arrest if he or she did not have information that the suspect had stolen drugs from a business.

In other cases, a police officer can establish probable cause by smelling drugs on the suspect, seeing evidence of drug use in plain view, or a suspect’s admission of guilt. The judge or magistrate will consider the facts presented by the police to determine whether probable cause is present based on a “totality of the circumstances.”

If you have been arrested or are being investigated for a crime and you believe that your arrest or investigation was conducted without establishing probable cause, you should consult an experienced criminal defense lawyer as soon as possible. A skilled attorney can help you prove that your case was not based on probable cause, and you may be able to have your charges dropped or the consequences mitigated.

False Positives

In the criminal justice system, prosecutors have power to put people in prison based on the results of a drug field test. It is not uncommon for defendants to be assigned bail that they can’t afford and spend weeks or months in jail until they have the opportunity to fight the charge.

These field tests have a reputation for being inaccurate much of the time, and they can lead to innocent people being sent to jail. Even if someone later proves that the test was wrong, the wrongful conviction is still on their record.

According to the New York Times Magazine, many of these false positives are caused by police officers being unsure how to properly conduct the tests or by chemicals used in the tests reacting with substances that are not illegal drugs. For example, the test for cocaine can produce a false positive when exposed to over 80 other compounds, including household cleaners and acne medication.

However, prosecutors in many jurisdictions are not interested in re-testing the evidence, and they will instead accept guilty pleas based on these tests. This is a practice that ProPublica has found to be widespread across the country.

During the course of their investigation, ProPublica spoke with several local prosecutors and forensic chemists who told them that drug field tests are notoriously inaccurate and can produce false positives. In the most extreme cases, people could be sent to jail for years because of a false drug test.

While it is impossible to determine exactly how many wrongful convictions are caused by false positives, it is estimated that millions of innocent people are being sent to prison each year. These wrongful convictions can have a significant impact on a person’s life.

These false positives are a major reason why it is important to have an attorney when you are facing charges for a drug crime. Having an attorney with a strong knowledge of the laws can help you fight the case and possibly have your trial dismissed or reduced to a misdemeanor. If you have a lawyer, they can help you get the results of any tests that have been done to try to prove that you were not involved in a crime.

Ineffectiveness

If you’ve been arrested and charged with a crime, you likely want to know whether the evidence that you’re relying on in court is accurate. It’s important to understand that drug field tests are often inaccurate and can lead to serious consequences. In some cases, people can be jailed for weeks or months before they have a chance to argue that the results are not valid.

If the evidence is wrong, the result can be fatal. For example, a positive drug test can put you in prison, and it’s not uncommon for lawyers to lose their clients because of the negative impact these tests have on their case.

It’s also worth noting that these tests aren’t regulated by government agencies or even by courts. This can make it harder for judges to recognize when they’re being used improperly.

In the case of field tests, this has become an issue because police and prosecutors have been using them for decades without any oversight or testing to ensure that they are accurate. In fact, the department of justice’s standards for field test reliability haven’t been updated in nearly 40 years.

Despite this, the use of these tests is growing. As of 2015, they were used by more than 5,000 police departments across the country.

This means that many officers and prosecutors have become increasingly confident in the accuracy of these tests, which can help them to secure convictions quickly. This is especially true with drugs like heroin and fentanyl, which are extremely powerful.

Some officers and prosecutors have begun to develop quality control checklists for these tests. For instance, the Las Vegas police have partnered with a company that manufactures a kit called NarcoPouch, which they claim will boost the credibility of their field tests with judges.

The company also offers a training program for officers that involves completing a check-off list to show that they’ve followed every step of the process and interpreted the test correctly. This is not a requirement in all jurisdictions, but it does seem to have made the testing more reliable.

Convictions

In most criminal cases, prosecutors must present lab tests to establish the substance in question was indeed illegal. That can be done with a battery of tests that include microscopic analysis, microcrystalline testing, ultraviolet spectroscopy, and gas chromatography. Lastly, a toxicology expert can be used to determine if the sample is contaminated with alcohol or other drugs.

Despite this, police officers across the country continue to arrest people on drug charges and obtain guilty pleas from those who are charged. This is because a defendant’s conviction for possession of a drug such as cocaine, marijuana or methamphetamine can have severe consequences. They can be jailed or forced to pay large bails, and their incarceration can have a lasting impact on their lives.

When these cases go to trial, judges are often hesitant to admit field test results as evidence because there is no official agency that oversees the testing process. Moreover, many police officers receive little or no training in how to properly administer the tests, which can make them less reliable.

In Houston, more than 300 people were wrongly convicted in recent years based on field tests that gave “false positives” for substances that did not contain any illegal drugs at all. These wrongful convictions occurred in both felony and misdemeanor cases.

Some of these wrongful convictions resulted in long sentences. Some of the defendants were sent to prison for several years, which impacted their ability to find work and support themselves. They were also deprived of visitation with their children and may have even lost custody of their children.

As a result, these false drug convictions have caused harm to thousands of innocent individuals. They have also exposed the justice system to a great deal of criticism and controversy.

Until authorities reexamine field test results, it’s likely that many more innocent citizens will face jail time for crimes they did not commit. In addition, because these tests are so unreliable, it’s hard for a defendant to request verification of their lab results before pleading guilty to a drug crime.