November 16, 2023
The city of Boston and a group of Black police officers who say their careers were derailed by unreliable and racially biased hair follicle drug test results have reached a $2.6 million settlement in the nearly 20-year-old case, attorneys announced Thursday.
June 22, 2018
A Massachusetts federal judge spent several hours in a Boston courtroom Friday discussing racial identity, implicit bias and the legal ramifications of drug-testing employees in a hearing that concluded the evidentiary portion of a long-running discrimination case against the Boston Police Department over false-positive results disproportionately affecting black people.
March 15, 2018
The former commissioner of the Boston Police Department told a Massachusetts federal judge in a long-running trial Thursday that he believed a drug test using hair samples was a valid means of screening officers, but acknowledged concern about a racial disparity in the results.
March 05, 2018
Using hair samples to test for drug use could lead to more false positive results for black job candidates, experts testified Monday at the start of a Massachusetts federal court bench trial on a long-standing claim by prospective and former Boston police officers that could have a wide-ranging impact on employee drug screening.
September 18, 2017
A Massachusetts federal judge told the city of Boston's police department on Monday that it could not avoid a bench trial in a long-running dispute with black officers about whether its old drug-testing policies violated discrimination law.
October 03, 2012
A Massachusetts federal judge on Monday tossed an employment suit brought by black police officers who accused the Boston police department of using discriminatory drug-screening tests, ruling that the tests impacted blacks and whites almost equally.