Rhode Island

At a glance

Oversight body

State Crime Laboratory Commission (R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 12-1.1). Five members: the attorney general (chair), the superintendent of state police, a Police Chiefs Association representative and two public members. The dean of the URI College of Pharmacy is executive secretary and “shall oversee the administration of the state crime laboratory.” The commission meets at least four times a year, sets the lab’s “goals, priorities, standards, policies, plans, programs, and budgets,” monitors and evaluates its operation, approves the director and staff, and reports yearly. The lab sits at URI (ch. 12-1.2). The Department of Health handles DNA database analysis and breath and blood testing rules.

Lab accreditation

No general accreditation mandate found. For DNA, Department of Health procedures “shall meet or exceed the current standards for quality assurance and proficiency testing for DNA analysis issued by the F.B.I.” (§12-1.5-10). The crime lab statute lists functions and director qualifications but no accreditation duty (§§12-1.2-3, 12-1.2-5). Chapters 10-9.1, 12-1.1, 12-1.2, 12-1.5 and 31-27 were searched; the full General Laws were not.

Analyst licensing

None. Breath tests count only if done with methods and equipment approved by the Department of Health and by an authorized person. Operators “shall be qualified and certified by the department of health within three hundred sixty-five (365) days of the test,” and equipment must be tested for accuracy within 30 days before use (§31-27-2(c)). The Department’s rule sets operator certification and recertification (216-RICR-60-05-1, effective January 4, 2022). Drug recognition experts are certified through training approved by the Department of Transportation’s highway safety office (§31-27-2(b)(1)).

Admissibility standard

R.I. R. Evid. 702 keeps the pre-2000 federal text: specialized knowledge that “will assist the trier of fact” (February 2024 compilation). For “novel or complex” evidence, courts hold a gatekeeping hearing using four nonexclusive DiPetrillo factors: testability, peer review, error rate and general acceptance (DiPetrillo v. Dow Chemical Co., 729 A.2d 677 (R.I. 1999)). Rhode Island has not adopted the 2023 change to Federal Rule 702.

Post-conviction forensic relief

No. The innocence protection provisions are DNA-only: biological evidence must be preserved, and DNA testing is available where a “reasonable probability” exists that exculpatory results would have changed the prosecution or verdict (§§10-9.1-10 to 10-9.1-12). No statute addresses changed forensic science generally.

DNA database scope

Arrestees and convictions. The chapter applies to “adult persons arrested for crimes of violence” and people convicted of any felony (§12-1.5-7). A sample is taken at booking for a crime of violence, but it may not be tested or added before arraignment unless a judge finds probable cause or the arrestee fails to appear or escapes; it is destroyed, with notice, if probable cause is not found (§12-1.5-8). The statute site prints two “contingent” versions of §12-1.5-7; both cover the same groups, and which is operative was not determined.

Facial recognition

No statute regulating government or police use was found. Bill searches for 2023 to 2026 found the term only in gaming, commercial AI and employment AI bills, none about law enforcement use.

Changes, 2023 to 2026

• Jul 2, 2025

  Crime guns must go for ballistic testing and NIBIN entry

  P.L. 2025, ch. 428 (H 5130 Sub A), R.I. Gen. Laws §12-1-10.2, §11-47-2Signed July 2, 2025; effective on passage

  When a “crime gun” (a firearm used in or suspected of use in a crime) is seized, the department must submit the gun or at least two test-fired cartridge cases to the state crime laboratory, ATF, or a qualified agency “with personnel certified in forensic ballistics examinations” for testing and NIBIN entry, or enter the casings into NIBIN at the attorney general’s office. Make, model and serial number go to ATF for tracing. Casings found at crime scenes must be entered “as soon as practicable.” Guns seized from an arrestee that are not crime guns may not be ballistically tested under this section.

  For practitioners: Ask for the NIBIN entry record and who did the testing; a gun that is not a crime gun may not be tested under this section.

  §12-1-10.2 H 5130 Sub A

• Aug 28, 2024

  Supreme Court upholds expert testimony on Google Wi-Fi location data

  State v. Mosley, No. 2022-13-C.A.Decided August 28, 2024

  The Court found no abuse of discretion in the trial justice’s admission of a detective’s expert testimony placing the defendant’s phone using Google Wi-Fi, GPS and cell-tower data. It recited the DiPetrillo test and said the evidence showed the Wi-Fi technology is “scientifically sound and methodologically reliable,” quoting State v. Adams (R.I. 2017). It relied on the trial justice’s view that phone-location testimony is not novel, the detective’s training, and the agreement of the three methods.

  For practitioners: Phone-location testimony is likely to be treated as non-novel, so a full DiPetrillo hearing is not guaranteed; aim the challenge at the witness’s method and data.

  State v. Mosley

• Jun 26, 2023

  Crime laboratory must audit missing offender DNA profiles each year

  P.L. 2023, ch. 354 (H 5435 Sub A) and ch. 355 (S 630 Sub A), R.I. Gen. Laws §12-1.5-19Signed June 26, 2023; effective June 26, 2023

  The crime laboratory “shall conduct an audit of offender DNA profiles included on the state DNA databank ... to identify the number of DNA profiles that are missing from the databank which should have been collected.” A preliminary report was due January 1, 2024 and a final report, covering offense types and “where collection failures occurred,” by December 31, 2024. An audit is then due every year by December 31.

  For practitioners: The audits may show whether a required sample was ever collected. The reports themselves were not located for this page.

  §12-1.5-19

Pending bills

Checked and unchanged