# Illinois

Illinois has an advisory Forensic Science Commission inside the State Police, but no analyst license and no general lab accreditation statute. Since 2023 the State has limited facial recognition on police drones, tied the Commission’s reporting duty to ISO 17025 accreditation, kept crime victims’ DNA profiles out of DNA databases, set lab deadlines for missing persons DNA, and widened certificates of innocence.

Source: https://uscli.org/forensic-science-tracker/illinois

## At a glance

- **Oversight body:** The Illinois Forensic Science Commission, created in 2021 within the Illinois State Police ([20 ILCS 2605/2605-615](https://www.ilga.gov/ftp/ILCS/Ch%200020/Act%202605/002026050K2605-615.html)). It gives guidance on forensic practice, reviews significant non-conformities reported by publicly funded ISO 17025 accredited labs, and recommends corrections. Those labs must report non-conformities each year. The statute gives it no subpoena, investigation, or sanction power. The State Police Director or a designee serves, and the Governor appoints the other members with Senate consent, including a director from each publicly funded accredited lab system, prosecution and defense members, bench scientists, and a medical examiner or coroner.
- **Lab accreditation:** No general statutory mandate was found. Accreditation decides which labs must report non-conformities to the Commission and whose directors sit on it (2605-615, as amended in 2024). For missing persons cases, since January 1, 2026, DNA samples from family members go to an accredited CODIS lab within 90 days of the police report, and samples from unidentified remains go to a CODIS accredited lab within 90 days (50 ILCS 722/10, 20, and 25, as amended by P.A. 104-339). P.A. 104-650 rewords these rules from January 1, 2027.
- **Analyst licensing:** None
- **Admissibility standard:** Frye. Under Illinois Rule of Evidence 702, an opinion based on a new or novel scientific method or principle requires proof that it is generally accepted in the relevant field; the committee comment says the rule “confirms that Illinois is a Frye state” ([Illinois Rules of Evidence](https://www.illinoiscourts.gov/resources/ad47521f-64d7-4053-a3b9-ef8de0e49842/file)). The rule was adopted September 27, 2010, effective January 1, 2011, and Illinois has not adopted the 2023 change to Federal Rule 702.
- **Post-conviction forensic relief:** No changed-science statute. A defendant may move for fingerprint, Integrated Ballistic Identification System, or forensic testing not available at trial ([725 ILCS 5/116-3](https://www.ilga.gov/ftp/ILCS/Ch%200725/Act%200005/072500050K116-3.html)), if identity was at issue and the method is generally accepted. Other routes are the DNA database search motion (116-5), a Post-Conviction Hearing Act petition (122-1), where actual innocence claims are exempt from the time limits, and a certificate of innocence (735 ILCS 5/2-702).
- **DNA database scope:** Anyone convicted of a felony or qualifying offense, or given juvenile supervision or adjudication for one; sex offender registrants; and state prison and juvenile justice inmates. Arrestees only for first degree murder, home invasion, predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, aggravated criminal sexual assault, or criminal sexual assault, and only after indictment, a probable cause finding, or waiver ([730 ILCS 5/5-4-3](https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=073000050K5-4-3)). A crime victim’s DNA profile collected in the investigation may not be entered into any DNA database (725 ILCS 120/4, since January 1, 2025).

## Changes, 2023 to 2026

- Jul 14, 2026 — **Certificates of innocence for juveniles and non-prison sentences** — P.A. 104-573 (HB 3663) · Approved and effective July 14, 2026 — 735 ILCS 5/2-702 now covers people convicted “or adjudicated a delinquent” who served any part of a sentence in a State prison, county jail, county juvenile detention facility, or Illinois Youth Center, on parole or probation, or as a registered sex offender. Before, it covered only people who were imprisoned. A petitioner may be innocent of “one or more” offenses, not “all.” — **For practitioners:** A client who served probation after a conviction later vacated on forensic grounds may now petition. — [P.A. 104-573](https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/PublicActs/104/104-0573.htm)
- Jan 1, 2026 — **Lab deadlines for missing persons and unidentified remains DNA** — P.A. 104-339 (SB 24) · Approved August 15, 2025; effective January 1, 2026 — The Missing Persons Identification Act was rewritten. Police must enter a missing person report in LEADS immediately, try to collect DNA samples from family members, and send them to an accredited CODIS lab within 90 days of the report. State Police labs or other accredited labs upload the profiles to the state and national DNA indexes. A case still open after 60 days goes into NamUs. For unidentified remains, if fingerprints do not identify the person, a forensic odontologist must examine the teeth within 45 days of recovery. If that fails, blood, tissue, or bone goes to a CODIS accredited lab within 90 days. Badly decomposed or skeletal remains also get a forensic anthropology exam within 60 days. — **For practitioners:** Check these deadlines when an identification came late in a death investigation. — [P.A. 104-339](https://www.ilga.gov/ftp/Public%20Acts/104/104-0339.htm)
- Jan 1, 2026 — **Commission chair serves a 2-year term** — P.A. 104-24 (SB 1764) · Approved June 30, 2025; effective January 1, 2026 — Beginning January 1, 2026, the Governor names the chair of the Forensic Science Commission for a 2-year term (20 ILCS 2605/2605-615). — **For practitioners:** Governance only; no change to lab duties. — [20 ILCS 2605/2605-615](https://www.ilga.gov/ftp/ILCS/Ch%200020/Act%202605/002026050K2605-615.html)
- Jan 1, 2025 — **Crime victims’ DNA kept out of DNA databases** — P.A. 103-792 (HB 1168) · Approved August 9, 2024; effective January 1, 2025 — New 725 ILCS 120/4(a)(1.6) says that when a person’s DNA profile is collected because they are a crime victim, that profile “shall not be entered into any DNA database.” Exceptions are Section 9.5 of the Criminal Identification Act and Section 3-3013 of the Counties Code. The act defines a DNA database as a collection of profiles built to search records against each other to develop investigative leads. It does not override FBI rules for CODIS and the national index. — **For practitioners:** Ask whether any victim reference profile was searched or retained in a lab or local database. — [P.A. 103-792](https://www.ilga.gov/ftp/Public%20Acts/103/103-0792.htm)
- Jul 1, 2024 — **Commission duties tied to ISO 17025 accreditation; State Police examine digital evidence** — P.A. 103-609 (HB 5495) · Approved and effective July 1, 2024 — The act inserts “ISO 17025 accredited” into 2605-615 in three places: the Commission’s review of non-conformities, the lab director seats, and the annual duty to report non-conformities. It also adds “and examine digital evidence” to the duties of the State Police Division of Forensic Services (2605-40). — **For practitioners:** Publicly funded labs that are not accredited no longer report non-conformities to the Commission. — [P.A. 103-609](https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/PublicActs/103/103-0609.htm)
- Jan 1, 2024 — **Medical examiner or coroner seat on the Commission** — P.A. 103-34 (HB 2412) · Approved June 9, 2023; this part effective January 1, 2024 — Adds “one member who is a medical examiner or coroner” to the Forensic Science Commission (2605-615(c)). The act also lets the State Police employ forensic anthropologists (2605-200). — **For practitioners:** A minor change to the Commission’s membership. — [P.A. 103-34](https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/PublicActs/103/103-0034.htm)
- Jun 16, 2023 — **Facial recognition limited on police drones** — P.A. 103-101 (HB 3902) · Approved and effective June 16, 2023 — New 725 ILCS 167/17 bars police from using facial recognition on a drone or running drone footage through facial recognition software. There are two exceptions: to counter a high risk of a terrorist attack that the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security finds credible, or on reasonable suspicion that swift action is needed to prevent imminent harm to life, a suspect’s escape, or destruction of evidence. The act also bars weapons on police drones and allows drones at special events, with limits. — **For practitioners:** A drone-based facial recognition match needs one of the two exceptions on the record. — [P.A. 103-101](https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/PublicActs/103/103-0101.htm)[725 ILCS 167/17](https://www.ilga.gov/ftp/ILCS/Ch%200725/Act%200167/072501670K17.html)

## Enacted, not yet in force, and pending

These laws were enacted but had not taken effect as of October 19, 2026. Bills of the 104th General Assembly stay alive through the fall 2026 veto session and until the Assembly ends in January 2027. Pending forensic bills could not be checked from official sources on October 19, 2026.

- **P.A. 104-709 (HB 5580):** approved July 31, 2026; effective January 1, 2027. When the State Police find a DNA match to a known suspect standard or in CODIS, they must notify the investigating agency in writing through their lab information system, with an automatic copy to the State’s Attorney (new 730 ILCS 5/5-4-3b(c)). [P.A. 104-709](https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/PublicActs/104/104-0709.htm)
- **P.A. 104-650 (SB 2949):** approved July 24, 2026; effective January 1, 2027. Rewords the P.A. 104-339 lab routing: samples go to an accredited forensic lab, and a lab that takes part in the national DNA index enters the profile. Allows voluntary samples from relatives when the missing person’s own samples are not available. Dental records go to LEADS at 30 days and to NamUs at 60 days. [P.A. 104-650](https://www.ilga.gov/documents/legislation/PublicActs/104/104-0650.htm)
- **P.A. 104-837 (SB 3506):** approved August 18, 2026. From January 1, 2027, it moves the victim DNA profile rule to paragraph (9.5) of 725 ILCS 120/4 without changing its text. [P.A. 104-837](https://www.ilga.gov/ftp/Public%20Acts/104/104-0837.htm)

## Checked and unchanged

- 725 ILCS 5/116-3 and 116-5 are unchanged since 2021. Illinois Rule of Evidence 702 is unchanged since it took effect in 2011.
- 730 ILCS 5/5-4-3 had only non-substantive amendments in 2023 and 2024: P.A. 103-51 removed death sentence references, and P.A. 103-605 was a revisory act.
- P.A. 104-736 (2026) lists 725 ILCS 5/115-15 (lab reports) in its index, but the act contains no amended text for that section, so it is not counted.
- The bar on the Secretary of State giving facial recognition searches or ID photos to agencies for federal immigration enforcement (15 ILCS 335/11(f)) predates 2023. The Biometric Information Privacy Act does not regulate government agencies.
- No genetic genealogy, rapid DNA, familial search, or analyst licensing provision was found in any Public Act of the 103rd or 104th General Assembly.