Six Boston city councillors yesterday called upon Boston Police Commissioner William Gross and Mayor Marty Walsh to cease all use of hair tests to screen BPD candidates for drug use. 

Council President Andrea Campbell and Councillor Kim Janey drafted a letter on the subject that was signed by Michelle Wu, Annissa Essaibi-George, Althea Garrison, and Lydia Edwards. The councillors noted that although the BPD has cultivated the most diverse command staff in its history over the last few years, the department has “yet to see any uptick in diversity through their recruitment and retention practices.” 

The letter reads in part: “One barrier to diversifying our police force is the hair drug test — a method of testing for the use of illicit substances by testing samples of hair cut off the top of a subject’s head. This method of drug testing not only creates an alarmingly high rate of false-positives, but it also disproportionately results in false-positives for black officers.” 

The councillors said that the use of hair drug tests causes undue harm to blacks and other officers of color and their families on the basis of “racially biased ‘testing’ methodologies. It is important to note that the inaccuracy of this testing methodology has already been ruled upon by multiple judicial bodies in recent years through litigation that has cost the city of Boston a total of $2.1 million in legal fees.

In a statement to the Reporter, a spokesperson for Mayor Martin Walsh said he concurs with the councillors.

“Mayor Walsh agrees that the best way forward is to eliminate hair testing at the Boston Police Department and we thank the City Council for their support of this change.

“We will work collaboratively with the union to implement an updated drug testing policy after contract negotiations are complete,” Walsh’s spokesperson said.