[tijlover]

Anyone read that bombshell article in last Sunday's LV Review Journal, in conjunction with Propublica, it hit the front page, and there was a 4-page article on it. Yesterday, there was a leading Editorial headlined Justice Denied.

"For nearly 3 decades, Metro Police and Clark County district attorney's have used cheap chemical field tests (they cost $2) to identify illegal drugs and obtain 10's of 1000's of criminal convictions, and the police have known all along the tests were vulnerable to error. Legal substances can create the same colors in the test kids as illegal drugs. In 2014, the police crime lab wrote a report arguing that officers should stop using most of the tests, but they did not stop. And last year, they greatly expanded the field tests admitted as evidence in the criminal courts."

And? We need even more cops in Las Vegas? More debt piled atop the taxpayers?

In the Editorial in today's paper, excerpts:

"Should the legal system elevate expedience above justice? It does so virtually every day in Clark County, a disturbing investigative account published in Sunday's Review-Journal concludes."

"As a result, scores -if not hundreds-of innocent people may be behind bars, railroaded into guilty pleas for drug crimes they didn't commit by a system seemingly indifferent to their plight. The stain permeates the entire criminal justice networks, including police, crime lab techs, prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges."

"Incredibly, Metro officials say they have never established an error rate for the tests because the department simply destroys samples after the pleas are entered and does not track how many of the field test results are re-checked. Some data show up to 10% of the tests could yield deficient outcomes."

"In other words, officers use a dubious test as the basis for an arrest and prosecutors then dangle those results in front of desperate, and often poor, suspects without ever having confirmed the original findings."

"Even the manufacturer of the tests, the Safariland Group, acknowledges the problems, saying in a statement that the kits are specifically not intended to be used as a factor in the decision to prosecute or convict a suspect, but in Clark County, they are, and sometimes they're the only factor."

"The current situation calls for immediate reform"

"Metro must transition to a more dependable means of identifying illegal substances in the field. In the interim, it should also cease destroying the test kit samples prosecutors use to coerce pleas."

"Meanwhile, public defenders and defense attorneys must more aggressively insist on additional analysis before accepting deals for clients held solely on the basis of these field tests. That this didn't happen long ago is a blight on the local defense bar, In addition, Judges would be wise to more closely scrutinize plea bargains hinging on such tests."

One further reason to Vote Yes on Ballot 2?

Comments?

[Daddys///M3]

End the war on drugs.

[Irish4evr]

Voting yes won't fix that problem...

[yellowsnow]

I know the drug testing, all of it, is seriously flawed. About 3 years ago I got a really bad dental infection. I was on heavy duty antibiotics and painkillers. I was on oxy and vicodin, both quite popular on the illegal drug market. I was on the painkillers for almost a month. Wouldn't you know, about 2 weeks later I was called in for a job interview that led to a drug test. They did hair and urine.

I knew the drug test would be positive. The urine would be 'clean' but the hair should show opiate use. No worries, I still had the prescription bottles so I could prove they were used and obtained legally. But guess what? I passed the drug test.

[BBMW]

First things first. I looked for this article but can't find it. Please post a link.

Edit: You had the wrong day. It was last Friday

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/po...-faulty-police

[Irish4evr]

Speaking of drug tests, I have a friend who's wife was rear ended by a semi in Arizona...she had to undergo a multiple level cervical fusion, and then was referred by her Ortho doc for continuing "pain management". She is 64, clean as the driven snow, and doesn't like taking aspirin.

So off she goes, the pain guy says..per protocol all patients need to be "drug tested" prior to treatment...no big deal...right ....wrong !

Two months later they got a bill to the tune of like 3k from a company out of Tennessee ...for a "drug analysis"....and their insurance declined because they failed to get pre-approval. Three grand...figure that one out ! They are Arizona residents if that should matter !