A Jacksonville Sheriff's Office police officer has resigned after he was charged with hitting a vehicle and leaving the scene this past weekend. l File
Published on September 29, 2023 at 11:36 am
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.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
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.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
The detective told his superiors, and Sheriff’s Office administrators told all officers to stop using the kits, police said. The Sheriff’s Office is investigating alternative testing kits.
The office said it has used Scott’s kits without issues for more than a decade.
“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,” a Sheriff’s Office statement said. “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.”
Police said there is no indication that any other field testing kit has issues.
