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ROY PENNY CHARLES HASS DANNY GRAY LON EILDERS LARRY DEMPSEY and BOBBY TANNER Individually and as the Executive Committee of Police Local 644 of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Plaintiffs
vs.
THOMAS KENNEDY Commissioner of Fire and Police of the City of Chattanooga Tennessee and the CITY OF CHATTANOOGA TENNESSEE Defendants
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Issues:
Drug testing, marijuana, public employee, due process, policy and procedure, search, evidence, safety, Fourth Amendment.
Case Summary:
Six officers with the Chattanooga Police Department challenge the city's drug testing program. Department administrators ordered 50 percent of the department's officers to provide urine samples in an unobserved collection process. Administrators then realized that a donor might tamper with a sample during the unobserved collection. The administrators changed the policy and ordered the balance of the department's officers to provide samples under direct observation. Several officers later filed suit, claiming the testing procedures violated constitutionally protected rights.
Decision of lower jurisdiction:
This is the first judicial review of this case.
Outcome:
The police officers win. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee ruled that the city's existing drug policy violated the Fourth Amendment. The court emphasized that the city failed to demonstrate reasonable suspicion or that a substance abuse problem existed within the police department. The court ruled the city could not use the policy at issue but noted the city could develop and implement a different policy. The court ruled along the same lines in a similar case involving the city's firefighters.