From Illinois:Question: Several years ago the City bargained for random drug testing of police officers. The contract states: “Employees covered by this Agreement shall be subject to random drug testing, so long as all sworn Department members are subject to the same such testing.” This is where the problem begins. The Police Department’s command staff…
The Newark Police Superior Officers’ Association (SOA) represents supervisors in the Newark Police Department. On March 20, 2018, the New Jersey attorney general issued Law Enforcement Directive 2018-02, implementing statewide mandatory random drug testing for all state, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies and sworn officers. The directive required all state, county, and municipal law…
Sergeant Samuel Velez Ortiz worked for the Florida Department of Corrections. Velez Ortiz became a patient of Dr. Justin Davis, who is licensed by the Florida Department of Health (DOH) to recommend medical marijuana use. After consulting with Dr. Davis, Velez Ortiz sought and obtained a valid medical marijuana-use registration card from the DOH based…
Pete Cortez is a former Engineer Operator with the City of Houston Fire Department. In January 2019, Cortez was randomly selected to take a urinalysis drug test pursuant to HFD’s controlled substance and alcohol abuse policy. The result was “negative and diluted.” Cortez was ordered to retest with a hair sample. According to the Executive…
Roy Neely worked as a firefighter for the New Orleans Fire Department. On September 1, 2020, Neely struck an overhead door as he was driving a rescue unit vehicle out of Fire Station 7. Neely’s District Chief ordered a post-accident substance abuse test. The test was administered by Jeffrey Mendler, the owner of Toxicology and…
The Boston Police Department requires applicants for officer positions to be screened for drug use via a hair sample test. The Department outsources the testing of hair samples for illegal narcotic use to Psychemedics Corporation, a company that has licensed laboratories in approximately 22 states. The bulk of Psychemedics’s work consists of testing hair samples…
Marlon Cooper, a lieutenant with the Memphis Fire Department, first tested positive for marijuana in 2008. At that time, Cooper was not terminated from his employment, but instead was suspended for 360 hours and thereafter entered into an employee assistance program (EAP). Although Cooper was given a second chance, the City made clear that illegal…
Roberick Washington was employed as a lieutenant at the Wyandotte County Juvenile Detention Center in Kansas City, Kansas. After a random drug test, he was fired for testing positive for cocaine. Washington filed a civil rights action against the County and several of his co-workers, alleging that the drug test was an illegal search that…
The continuing litigation saga involving eight Boston police officers terminated for failing the Police Department’s “hair test” for drugs appears to have yet more life left in it. When their hair tested positive for controlled substances, the officers sued, claiming that the hair drug test was racially discriminatory. After the officers lost an initial round…
Between 2001 and 2006, as part of the Boston Police Department’s random drug testing program, ten officers submitted hair samples that tested positive for cocaine. In response, the Department terminated their employment. The ten officers appealed the terminations to the Massachusetts State Civil Service Commission. After extensive hearings, the Commission issued a decision upholding the…
Duane Bennett was a Chicago Police sergeant and served on the Department for 22 years until his termination. During his employment, Bennett provided a urine sample for at least a dozen random drug tests. On July 10, 2012, Bennett provided a urine sample for another random drug test; the sample tested positive for 50 nanograms…
The challenges to the hair drug test used by the Boston Police Department took a curious turn with a decision from a federal court in Massachusetts. The case involved a racial discrimination claim brought by ten black officers against the Department challenging the constitutionality of the hair drug test administered by the Department to officers…
Nicholas Morse is a Minnesota State Trooper. Morse arrived in his squad car at a training assignment about ten minutes late. Lieutenant Quint Stainbrook asked Morse for his portable radio so it could be reprogrammed. Morse left the building and the lieutenant waited several minutes for him to return. Stainbrook gave up waiting and went…
Mister Walker (that’s his real first name) has been a deputy sheriff with Cook County, Illinois for 32 years. When Walker’s random drug test was positive for oxazepam, the County opened an investigation into his drug use. During the investigation, Walker provided multiple prescription bottles, including ones from 1995 and 2000, one of which included…
Following his arrest for Driving Under the Influence, Antjuan Proctor entered a “back-to-work agreement” in lieu of termination from the Fairfax County, Virginia Fire and Rescue Department. Under the Agreement, Proctor was required to abstain from all mood-altering substances and submit to random, unannounced drug and alcohol testing. Less than two months after he entered…
A Massachusetts trial court has not only upheld but expanded on a ruling by the state’s Civil Service Commission that struck down the use of hair tests as part of the random drug testing program for the Boston Police Department. The case involved the termination of ten officers who had tested positive for cocaine. The…
Michael La Porta is a corrections lieutenant for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. When La Porta tested positive for methamphetamine on a drug test, he appealed the termination decision. At a hearings board, the Department told the administrative law judge it needed a continuance because its one witness, a doctor who would have…
Lyn Wilson was employed as a correctional officer with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Wilson worked at the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad. In April 2007, Wilson began experiencing “massive” headaches. In May 2007, Wilson consulted her primary care doctor, Dr. Hoffman. Hoffman diagnosed migraine and prescribed a series of medications, none of…
Steven Payton was employed as a lieutenant with the Memphis, Tennessee Division of Fire Services. On December 10, 2008, Payton submitted to a random drug screen while on duty, and he tested positive for marijuana. Following an administrative hearing, Payton was suspended without pay for 360 hours, and he received a management referral to the…
The unions representing New York City’s police officers, detectives, and sergeants brought a lawsuit challenging NYPD Interim Order 52, which requires that a breathalyzer test be administered to any NYPD officer involved in a shooting that results in injury or death to a person in New York City. The unions challenged the Order as an…
On September 24, 2007, Travis Quesada was dismissed from his employment with Tampa, Florida Fire Rescue after a second drug test came back positive for suspicious levels of the metabolite 19-norandrosterone. This result suggested that Quesada had taken the anabolic steroid Nandrolone and had been untruthful in his responses to departmental and medical inquiries regarding…
On March 12, 2007, James Berlo, a captain in the Boston Fire Department, tested positive for a narcotic when administered a random drug test by the Department. The Department’s Hearing Board imposed a one-month unpaid suspension. The Board’s decision informed Berlo of his right to appeal to the Boston Civil Service Commission. Bypassing the Commission,…
Thomas McDougall was a 25-year member of the Fire Department of the City of New York. After a positive random drug test confirmed the presence of cocaine in McDougall’s system, a “Step-1” conference was held to review the charges for violation of regulations brought against McDougall by the Department. Following that conference, a deputy assistant…
Edward Neal has served as a firefighter for 25 years with the City of Augusta, Georgia. Department employees are subject to random drug tests. When Neal was tested, a technician collected a urine specimen from Neal and sent the sample to an independent laboratory for testing. The written lab report indicated a result of “positive”…
The New York Police Department randomly tests its members for drugs. For a number of years, the testing was conducted on either the urine or hair of members. In 2005, the Department switched to a methodology for hair testing known as radioimmunoassay, or RIAH. The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association and the Sergeants’ Benevolent Association filed the…
