N.C. Police To Test Narcotic Analyzer
A device could allow police officers to determine if substances collected at crime scenes are illegal narcotics within minutes rather than sending the substances to crime labs as currently required by courts in North Carolina.
Success of the device would mean less of a backlog for the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation’s crime lab and faster prosecution for drug cases.
Currently, 75 percent of the crime lab’s work is toxicology, says state attorney general’s office spokesperson William McKinney, who wants to ensure that the device meets scientific standards before allowing its conclusions to be permissible in court.
The device, created by Nartest Technologies, is currently in a pilot phase at the Greensboro and High Point Police Departments. Nartest asserts that the device is effective and reliable, but it will still undergo a peer review and an investigation by an unnamed federal agency.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Greensboro News & Record (NC) (06/17/05) P. A1; Vandiver, John .