Case Study:

The Washington County (Virginia) Sheriff’s Office, led by Sheriff Blake Andis, is staffed by over 80 sworn deputies and a dedicated team of additional staff. Together, we serve our relatively rural county, handling both minor offenses and serious crimes, including narcotics trafficking.

Interstate Highway 81 is used to transport narcotics via Knoxville, Tennessee, through our county to a large market in New York City and across New York state. Traffickers also use US Highway 58 and I-75 as routes for drugs sourced from Ohio.

Fortunately, cartels are not active in the manufacture and sale of narcotics in the county. The "drug lords" in Washington County are local citizens, some organized in small gangs, who sell at gas stations, public parking lots, and other easily accessible areas.

While our deputies have made significant progress in reducing use and sales, as well as cross-county transportation, the majority of arrests are still narcotics-related. When serving warrants for other crimes or during routine traffic stops, our deputies often uncover illicit drugs.

Before the COVID pandemic, methamphetamines were the narcotic of choice in the county. After the pandemic, the county saw a notable increase in the use of heroin and fentanyl.

Potential harm from exposure

Narcotics still present a danger to our deputies, especially when trying to identify the substance they are dealing with. The consensus is that accidental handling or inhalation of narcotics obtained by law enforcement, including fentanyl, will not cause harm to deputies. However, we actively monitor narcotic-related incidents impacting law enforcement deputies nationwide, and in nearby jurisdictions, to identify any potential threats that our deputies could face. In a recent incident, our deputies were called to the regional prison after staff found a suspicious substance and fell sick after touching it. Despite taking precautions, the deputies felt side effects after handling the substance. Fatal accidental overdosing is highly unlikely, but the risks are real, and we must always manage the risks when dealing with narcotics.

Understandably, deputies are reluctant to expose themselves to the risks of handling harmful chemicals. They often confiscate the substance without testing it on the scene and send it to the state laboratory for analysis rather than taking a chance. It can take up to 90 days to receive the results from the lab, delaying everyone involved in the process: the Sheriff’s Office, the prosecutors, and the defendants.

Over the years, numerous solutions have been used to test unknown substances, including colorimetric testing that required deputies to open suspicious packages or bottles, putting them at risk of exposure to potentially dangerous contents.

Establishing probable cause

In addition to the safety risks from handling unknown substances, discovering an unmarked bag of powder or an unlabeled bottle of pills may be grounds for suspicion, but it is not enough for an arrest. Deputies need to verify that the substance is an illicit narcotic. Traditionally, drugs that have been confiscated are sent to the state laboratory to confirm they were illicit narcotics. Once the evidence is collected and confirmed, the deputies proceed with indictments.

Based on these challenges, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office needed an alternative that would analyze unknown substances in the field and provide immediate, accurate presumptive drug analysis to our deputies.

Sheriff Andis wanted to implement a presumptive analysis solution that was easy to use, could rapidly identify suspicious substances, and reliably assist deputies in their jobs while limiting their exposure to potentially harmful narcotics. The results and readings would have to stand up in court.

Accurate IDs on the scene

We selected Rigaku’s CQL Narc-ID handheld detector. The analyzer utilizes Raman spectroscopy, which emits laser light aimed at the substance. This causes the material's molecules to vibrate, causing a change in the energy of the laser photons. These changes create a ‘structural fingerprint’ of the material, accurately identifying it in less than one minute. This minimizes the time a deputy needs to interact with an unknown substance, thereby reducing exposure.

Critically, the laser can pass through the packaging, including the wall of a container, to analyze the material inside. This contactless analysis makes it a safer alternative for deputies.

We made this choice after a thorough study. We reviewed the recommendations of the Scientific Working Group for the Analysis of Seized Drugs, which establishes standards, techniques, protocols, and policies for forensically examining seized drugs. It recognizes Raman spectroscopy as a Class A analytical technique for presumptive field testing as it provides highly accurate results within seconds and reduces the probability of human error.

We applied to Virginia’s Department of Criminal Justice Service (DCJS) for a grant to cover procurement. By the end of February 2024 almost 30 staff members had received in-person and live online training to use the device correctly. A critical aspect of the training involved showing deputies the correct techniques to apply in different scenarios to ensure accurate results. Once in-person training was successfully completed, the device was put into full service.

Currently, the device is used primarily by our patrol division and counter-narcotics team. On numerous occasions while serving non-narcotics related search warrants, patrol deputies have found suspicious substances and powders, including fentanyl and cocaine, that were incidental to the case they were working on. In these instances, the device is brought in to verify what the deputies find on the scene.

An arrest is made as soon as the deputy using the Raman receives a positive test result. The on-board camera enables the deputy to create a detailed incident report by combining the positive result with descriptive photos of the sample, the scene, and the suspect. The device time and date-stamps all images, files, and reports generated at the scene.

All the relevant information needed for additional analysis can be transferred by the deputy on scene from the device, via WiFi, peer-to-peer, or USB, to the investigating deputy and the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office.

For additional certainty and oversight, we still send the narcotics to the state laboratory for further analysis to confirm the substance's identity. So far, the Raman device has not produced any false positives, the state laboratory has upheld all the results it has provided, and no results have been challenged in court.

Additional resources are available if deputies still feel unsure. Rigaku offers a 24/7/365 ‘reach-back’ service that allows law enforcement to contact a company representative anytime and transfer the scan results to them. The data is secured before, during, and after the transfer. A more powerful analytic system will process the data, with verbal confirmation and a written report within 24 hours.

Increased safety for deputies and citizens

The impact of the device on our deputies has been significant. They all feel safer about handling unknown substances because they don’t have to open containers. There has been no pushback against it and prosecutors support its use. We feel it is an excellent investment and aim to purchase additional units.

With Raman technology, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office has strengthened its effectiveness in dealing with narcotics within or traveling through the county. We will continue in our fight to ensure our county is as drug-free as possible.

This case study first appeared in Sheriff & Deputy magazine’s Sept/Oct 2024 edition.

Capt. Travis Turner began his career with the Washington County (Virginia) Sheriff’s Office in 1997 as a communication officer. In 1999, he was transferred to the county jail as a deputy sheriff jailor. In 2001, he was hired as a patrol deputy where he has spent most of his career. Today, he is captain of the patrol division. Capt. Turner can be contacted at tturner@washso.org