District of Columbia
The District requires its Department of Forensic Sciences to be accredited, and a Science Advisory Board of outside scientists reviews reports of misconduct and testing error. D.C. Law 24-348 (2023) would make the lab independent and let the Board investigate complaints and order reexaminations, but it is enacted and not in effect until it is funded. Since June 8, 2024, DNA may be taken from people charged with violent and sex crimes once a judge finds probable cause. Familial DNA searching is barred.
- Sources checked
- Part of
- Forensic Ledger
At a glance
- Oversight body
- The Department of Forensic Sciences (DFS) and its nine-member Science Advisory Board (D.C. Code 5-1501.11). The Board has five scientists, including a statistician and a quality-assurance expert, and four forensic scientists; none may work for DFS or a law enforcement lab or agency. It reviews all reports of negligence, misconduct, misidentification or testing error, reviews protocols, and reviews the scientific literature at least every three years (5-1501.12). Such allegations go to the Board immediately; those the Director finds credible and substantial go to an external evaluator, with the investigation starting within 30 business days (5-1501.10). A Stakeholder Council also exists (5-1501.13). D.C. Law 24-348 would make the lab independent and expand the Board’s powers, but it is not in effect (see below).
- Lab accreditation
- Yes, by statute. “The Department shall be accredited by an appropriate, bona fide national accrediting organization,” with accreditation obtained before January 1, 2014; any unit not covered, or added later, “shall be accredited as soon as possible” (D.C. Code 5-1501.06(d)). The Director must obtain and maintain accreditation (5-1501.04(a)), and accreditation documents are public (5-1501.06(i)(1)). DFS may hand off rape kit processing only to an “accredited laboratory” (4-561.02(b-1)). Whether DFS now holds accreditation was not checked.
- Analyst licensing
- None. The Director sets “qualification standards for analyst positions within the Department” (D.C. Code 5-1501.04(b)(11)), and the Board reviews them. DFS must certify each District breath instrument at least every 180 days, and an uncertified instrument may not be used. DFS also runs the program that trains and certifies officers as breath-test operators (5-1501.07). The implementing regulations were not checked.
- Admissibility standard
- Federal Rule 702, by case law. D.C. has no comprehensive codified rules of evidence. In Motorola Inc. v. Murray, 147 A.3d 751 (D.C. 2016) (en banc), the Court of Appeals replaced the Dyas/Frye test: “we adopt Rule 702.” The opinion describes the rule as amended in 2000 and restyled in 2011. No D.C. rule or opinion adopting the 2023 change to Federal Rule 702 was found.
- Post-conviction forensic relief
- No. Under the Innocence Protection Act, a person in custody for a crime of violence may seek DNA testing, including when the material was not tested by the method requested and that method “would have a reasonable probability of providing a more probative result” (D.C. Code 22-4133). A motion to vacate on actual innocence “based on new evidence” may be filed at any time (22-4135). New evidence includes evidence not known or producible at trial and results of post-conviction DNA testing (22-4131(7)). No statute addresses new or changed forensic science generally.
- DNA database scope
- Charge-based and conviction-based. Since June 8, 2024, the Mayor may collect DNA from anyone charged with a crime of violence, a dangerous crime or listed sex offenses, but nothing may be collected, analyzed or entered into CODIS “before a judicial officer has made an initial probable cause finding” (D.C. Code 22-4152). Samples are destroyed and expunged automatically on non-conviction, reversal without retrial, or unconditional pardon. A District agency may collect from anyone convicted of a qualifying offense: any felony, any offense punishable by more than one year, listed sex offenses, and attempts or conspiracies (22-4151(a), 22-4153). DNA collected by a District agency “shall not be searched for the purpose of identifying a family member” (22-4151(b), 2009).
- Facial recognition
- No statute. A full-text search of the Council’s official codified-law repository found no “facial recognition” or “genetic genealogy” provision (DCCouncil/law-html).
Changes, 2023 to 2026
Secure DC: DNA from charged defendants after a probable cause finding, local convicted-offender collection, Rapid DNA waiver
New 22-4152 lets the Mayor collect DNA from anyone charged by information, complaint or indictment with a crime of violence, a dangerous crime or listed sex offenses, or an attempt or conspiracy, and lets a court direct collection. No sample may be collected, analyzed or entered into CODIS “before a judicial officer has made an initial probable cause finding.” Samples are destroyed and expunged automatically on non-conviction, reversal or unconditional pardon. New 22-4153 lets a District agency collect from any person “who is, or has been, convicted” of a qualifying offense. Samples go to the FBI Laboratory or an FBI-approved lab, but that “may be waived, with the permission of the FBI, if DNA samples are analyzed by means of Rapid DNA instruments and the results are included in CODIS.” Sec. 30(e) makes cooperation with authorized DNA collection a condition of pretrial release (23-1321). These sections are not subject to the act’s funding clause (sec. 45), so they are in force. The same text was in force earlier under Acts 25-410 and 25-490. The familial-search ban in 22-4151(b) is unchanged.
For practitioners: Before a DNA sample is taken from a charged client, confirm a judicial probable cause finding. On acquittal or dismissal, confirm the sample was destroyed and the profile expunged. If Rapid DNA was used, ask for the FBI permission.
Enacted, not yet in force, and bills that did not pass
- D.C. Law 24-348, Restoring Trust and Credibility to Forensic Sciences Amendment Act of 2022: enacted, but not in effect pending funding. The Mayor did not sign it (Act 24-780, January 2023), and it became law April 21, 2023, after congressional review. Sec. 10(a) says the act “shall apply upon the date of inclusion of its fiscal effect in an approved budget and financial plan,” and the Chief Financial Officer must certify that date. This covers the whole act, including its amendments to D.C. Code 4-561.02 and 23-1910. The Code shows the new sections as “Not Funded,” and no certification is reflected there; the FY2027 budget act (D.C. Law 26-179) still funds the “Department of Forensic Sciences.” Once funded, the act would: make DFS an independent Forensic Sciences and Public Health Laboratory, with a Council-confirmed Director serving six years and removable only for good cause; create a Council-confirmed Chief Forensic Sciences Officer with at least 10 years of lab experience; require policies to identify and document “task-irrelevant information that could create bias”; give the prosecutor and the defense identical sets of records, including chain-of-custody logs; post accreditation records, manuals, validation studies, and quality-assurance and corrective-action reports online; rename the Board the Science Advisory and Review Board, add human factors, microbiology and epidemiology seats while keeping the statistician and quality-assurance seats, and give it access to all lab records and power to seek outside audits; create a complaint process with reports to the Board within 24 business hours, under which the Board may investigate and order retrospective reexaminations; and add an exoneree to the Stakeholder Council (D.C. Law 24-348; 5-1501.12a).
No pending bill on these topics was found in Council Period 26 (2025 to 2026). A bill that did not pass:
- B25-0348, the Ensuring Safe Forensic Evidence Handling for Sexual Assault Survivors Amendment Act of 2023, was not enacted and lapsed at the end of Council Period 25. Its record was not rechecked on October 20, 2026, because the Council’s legislation database now requires an access token.
Checked and unchanged
- D.C. Code 5-1501.06(d) (accreditation): operative text unchanged since D.C. Law 19-18 (2011). Every section of 5-1501.01 to 5-1501.16 carries a 2023 history entry for D.C. Law 24-348, but the operative text is the pre-2023 language.
- D.C. Code 5-1501.11 (Science Advisory Board membership): last operative amendment by D.C. Law 19-320 (2013).
- D.C. Code 22-4151 (qualifying offenses; familial-search ban): last amended by D.C. Law 18-88 (2009).
- Innocence Protection Act: 22-4133 unchanged since D.C. Law 14-134 (2002); 22-4135 last amended in 2009; 22-4131 last amended in 2013.
- Other 2023 to 2026 D.C. laws that mention forensics are budget acts, D.C. Law 26-101 (campus sexual misconduct; refers students to forensic exams) and a passing reference in D.C. Law 25-264. None changes forensic science law.
Last updated October 20, 2026Source: United States Council for Law & InvestigationCite as: United States Council for Law & Investigation, “District of Columbia forensic science oversight: Forensic Ledger,” uscli.org/forensic-science-tracker/district-of-columbia (last updated October 20, 2026). Text licensed CC BY 4.0.