Precise Analysis
Technology provides the greatest ally in speed and accuracy for substance analyzers
In the war on illicit drug trafficking today,
a law enforcement professional’s
greatest allies are speed and accuracy.
Lack of speed may have the consequence
of delayed justice and inaccurate
substance analysis may result in a wrongful
conviction of the innocent or letting a
drug trafficker go free.
Advanced technology in hand-held,
portable drug analyzer devices provides
both speed and accuracy to a greater degree
than ever before, and this is critical
because illicit trafficking in ever-moredangerous
drugs such as fentanyl is increasing
exponentially worldwide.
Speedy and accurate results of substance
analysis at the point of interdiction are critical,
not only for preventing false alarms and
wrongful arrests that send innocent people
to jail, but also, conversely, for confirming
suspicions and convicting bad actors; but
there is a lot more to it than that.
Nothing can take the place of wise discretion
and intuitive thinking on the part
of law enforcement professionals, but reliable
technology can help make their job
easier by providing confirmation and results
that can be trusted unquestionably.
THE NEED FOR SPEED
There are many reasons why speedy results
on the street are critical. Fast and accurate
results will save lives. If a person at a crash
scene is going into convulsions and having
trouble breathing, and there is evidence of
a powder spilled in the vehicle, a 10-second
result identifying the substance as fentanyl
could save that person’s life with the administration
of a dose of NARCAN antidote.
It could also prevent the officer from
making contact with the dangerous synthetic
opioid. Speedy results could mean sending
a drug trafficker to jail and take volumes of
drugs off the street then and there without
having to wait for results from a lab, a lab
that may be hopelessly backlogged for weeks
and even months with substance testing.
Lab backlogs are a serious problem today,
allowing the guilty to avoid justice, and
worse, allowing innocent people to be wrongfully
detained while they wait to be cleared.
Delays and backlogs, the result of inadequate
and inaccurate testing technology and the explosion in illegal drug use, hurt the innocent
as often as they don’t identify the guilty.
This article originally appeared in the July / August 2020 issue of Security Today.
