The D.C. Department of Forensic Sciences' crime lab has been functionally closed since April 2021.
that criticized operations at the lab since its opening in 2012. The report recommended complete overhauls of parts of the forensics arm. As of Thursday, according to Crispino, 30 percent of positions across the agency were vacant.dating back to the crime lab’s establishment in 2012, fearing that past errors could have led to wrongful convictions. She convened an ad hoc committee in December that has been meeting regularly to determine who should lead that effort.
The absence of a functioning crime lab has also meant the city has outsourced much of its evidence processing. At the oversight hearing, D.C. Council member Charles Allen , who chairs the judiciary committee, listed at least seven external partners contracted with the city to analyze evidence. The proposed budget includes more than $1.5 million to hire a consultant and pay for third-party help that will help prevent further backlogs in the District’s court system.
On Thursday, Crispino also provided an update on the crime lab’s digital evidence unit, which the SNA report concluded had a “lack of competent management practices,” and “unvalidated methods for performing acquisitions, extractions, examinations and analyzes of digital evidence.”Crispino said he plans to transfer two digital evidence unit employees to D.C. police, though Allen asked if the police department was accredited to perform digital evidence work.
Crispino said the move would prevent a backlog in cases and that prosecutors had agreed it was the best way forward. He added that the Sciences Advisory Board, which oversees the Department of Forensic Sciences, would further evaluate the digital evidence transfer during a meeting at the end of April.
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