The Gray administration is backing a plan to take control of the city’s crime lab away from the police department by making it an independent agency that answers directly to the mayor, but the administration does have concerns about finding the dollars in the District’s cash-strapped budget to make it happen. The analysis of DNA, gunshot and clothing fiber evidence is often called into question in the courtroom when a police agency handles a criminal investigation and the forensic evaluation on its own. But a bill introduced to the D.C. Council last month by at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson would create a forensics department whose independence from police would help prosecutors overcome courtroom challenges. The department would run a $215 million crime lab that’s scheduled to open in December. On Monday, Mayor Vince Gray’s public safety deputy Paul Quander said the mayor supports Mendelson’s proposal but with reservations.
“Anyone accused of committing a crime facing scientific evidence should be assured that methods of analysis have undergone the scrutiny of scientific peer review and are independent from any real or perceived conflicts of interest,” Quander said during a council hearing on the bill. But, he later added, “given our current fiscal pressures, we may not be able to immediately expand the lab into new services.”
The 300,000-square foot lab will house services like DNA and gunshot analysis currently performed by the police department. It will add to that the medical examiner’s office and certain department of health functions. It’s meant to expand into drug testing and computer forensics, jobs currently done by federal agencies on the city’s behalf.
Quander told The Washington Examiner that the forensics agency could phase in its control of the lab by pulling each piece into its orbit as the cash became available.
“We don’t have to do everything at once,” he said. “Our ultimate goal is to have it fully accredited and function as a viable state-of-the-art facility.”
Mendelson was undeterred.
“It would be nice if the lab was fully expanded and robust on opening day,” he said. “But that’s taking on new functions, and we may not be so lucky with this budget.”
