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The Case of Junk Science - Roadside Drug Test Evidence
📻 Episode #406
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Nov 13, 2023
About This Episode
Josh Dubin examines Roadside Drug Testing with Greg Glod, Criminal Justice Senior Policy Fellow.
The Case
Josh Dubin examines Roadside Drug Testing with Greg Glod, Criminal Justice Senior Policy Fellow.
Faulty tests, which cost police departments $2 a piece or less, are widely used across the United States, causing countless people to plead guilty to crimes they didn’t commit, despite scientific evidence that proves just how ineffective they really are.
Kate Judson, Executive Director of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences, updates Josh Dubin's Wrongful Conviction: Junk Science.
http://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/junk-science
https://www.propublica.org/article/common-roadside-drug-test-routinely-produces-false-positives
https://www.propublica.org/article/no-field-test-is-fail-safe-meet-the-chemist-behind-houston-police-drug-kits
In Their Own Words — transcript excerpts
Short excerpts from the episode's official published transcript, with timestamps — listen from these moments, or read the full transcript via the podcast's own platforms.
00:04:23“Speaker 2: the officer says, excuse me, what are you talking about. Speaker 2: You have no idea what the officer thinks he saw, Speaker 2: but you certainly did not have any kind of needle Speaker 2: in your car. The cop ignores your question and walks Speaker 2: over to the passenger window. Ma'am, I'm going to need”
00:18:05“Speaker 3: And so first and foremost is actually training. And so Speaker 3: it seems very easy. You drop something in a vial Speaker 3: and you test it and see if it turns a Speaker 3: different color, and if it does, then it's supposed to Speaker 3: be drugs. But it's not that simple, and so officers”
00:28:00“Speaker 3: six sponge even if you're wrongfully convicted, And even if Speaker 3: you get that off your physical record, the digital record Speaker 3: still stays there. You have a mug shot that's out there. Speaker 3: You have this arrest record, you have the plea. You Speaker 3: have all these different documents and they can be scrubbed”
Listen to the Episode
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Also on the podcast: #145 Junk Science - Bite Mark Evidence · #147 Junk Science - Bloodstain Pattern Evidence · #149 Junk Science - Arson Evidence