Drug Hair Test Biased Against Afro-Am Cops

Posted on July 27, 2005 by glasscastle

Seven former Boston police officers, all African-Americans
who were fired after testing positive for cocaine in drug tests using
samples of their hair, sued the police department yesterday, alleging
the screening technique is biased against African-Americans.

Rheba Rutkowski, an attorney at Bingham McCutchen who represents the former
officers, said scientific literature indicates that the texture of African-American
hair as well as the hair products they use could skew the results of a
hair test. She also said hair tests are easier to pass if an employee has
light hair, and that stray molecules can bind to African-American hair,
altering the results.

”African-American hair is different from white hair because, among other
things, it is coarser and thicker," Rutkowski said. ”In fact, those
properties make it far more likely to yield a false positive on a hair
test than white hair."

from the Boston Globe
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2 Responses to Drug Hair Test Biased Against Afro-Am Cops

  1. Bandito says:
    August 25, 2005 at 1:43 pm

    If they are doing dope they shouldn’t be cops, I noticed none of them suggested taking a lie detector test to prove their innocence. The issue is not who is easier to catch doing it, its a matter of they should be doing it in the first place.

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