Now that the D.C. crime lab’s forensic biology and forensic chemistry units have gotten their accreditation back, Mayor Muriel Bowser’s administration said it’s confident it won’t be lost again.
The ANSI National Accreditation Board returned accreditation to the city’s Department of Forensic Sciences’ Forensic Biology Unit and Forensic Chemistry Unit on Tuesday.
It comes after D.C. Council member Brianne Nadeau said in October that was in the process of getting back its accreditation by January 2024.
It had been under intense scrutiny after federal prosecutors discovered evidence errors in murder cases in which there were a number of cases where auditors had different conclusions about the evidence than examiners at the department’s firearms unit.
As a result, DPS had its accreditation to perform forensic testing temporary suspended in 2021.
City Administrator Kevin Donahue told WTOP that the accreditation board knew that it was going to be heavily scrutinized.
“I don’t think there was an accreditation in the country that got more attention and more scrutiny, given all the publicity around this crime lab’s loss of accreditation as this crime lab trying to get its accreditation back,” Donahue said.
The city’s Department of Forensic Sciences brought in scientists at the choosing of the U.S. Attorney to look at the processes and procedures to make sure convictions stick.
Donahue said more cases will now be processed and looked at more broadly “to see if there’s connections to other crimes.”
WTOP’s Tadiwos Abedje contributed to this story.
