Vermont
Vermont has no forensic science commission, no lab accreditation statute and no analyst license; the Department of Public Safety runs the state forensic lab. Police may not use facial recognition until the legislature authorizes it. Since July 1, 2026, consumer genetic testing companies may not give data to government without a warrant or the consumer’s express consent. Since 2024, sexual assault survivors have a right to know the status and location of their evidence kit.
- Sources checked
- Part of
- Forensic Ledger
At a glance
- Oversight body
- No forensic science commission. The lab is the “Department of Public Safety Forensic Laboratory” (20 V.S.A. §1932(8)), which runs the state DNA database and data bank. The Department adopts rules for breath, saliva and blood analysis (23 V.S.A. §1203). Executive Order 01-25 would have made the Department an Agency of Public Safety with a forensic laboratory division. The Senate disapproved it on March 20, 2025 (S.R. 10) under 3 V.S.A. §2002(b), which requires only one house. The order claimed both houses were needed. The Department of Public Safety continues to operate.
- Lab accreditation
- No statute found. A full-text search of the Vermont Statutes for “accredited” and “accreditation” returned no forensic or crime lab provision. Executive Order 01-25, quoted in S.R. 10, calls the Department’s lab “Vermont’s only accredited forensic lab”; that is a description, not a legal requirement. For post-conviction DNA testing, no accreditation criterion is stated (13 V.S.A. §5568).
- Analyst licensing
- None. “A breath test shall be administered only by a person who has been certified by the Vermont Criminal Justice Council to operate the breath testing equipment being employed.” The State’s analysis “shall be considered valid when performed according to a method or methods selected by the Department of Public Safety” by rule (23 V.S.A. §1203). The Secretary of State’s rules database lists a Department “Breath & Blood Alcohol Analysis Rule” (13-140-003); its current text was not retrieved.
- Admissibility standard
- Daubert. V.R.E. 702 has the three reliability prongs in the pre-2023 federal wording. In State v. Rheaume, 2024 VT 53, ¶27, the Supreme Court quoted 985 Associates v. Daewoo, 2008 VT 14, on applying “the federal principles governing admissibility of expert testimony,” and cited State v. Streich, 163 Vt. 331 (1995), for the Daubert factors. Evidence rule orders promulgated since December 2024 amend Rules 106, 502 and 615, not Rule 702 (promulgated rules). Vermont has not adopted the 2023 change to Federal Rule 702.
- Post-conviction forensic relief
- No. The Innocence Protection subchapter is DNA-only: a petition for post-conviction DNA testing, with procedures after favorable results (13 V.S.A. §§5561-5570). No statute addresses changed forensic science generally.
- DNA database scope
- Conviction-based; no arrestee collection. Samples are taken on conviction of a “designated crime”: any felony, domestic assault, offenses requiring sex offender registration, stalking, reckless endangerment, most abuse prevention order violations, misdemeanor abuse, neglect or exploitation of vulnerable adults, attempts, and some plea-reduced offenses (20 V.S.A. §§1932, 1933). Samples are destroyed after reversal and dismissal or a full pardon (§1940).
- Facial recognition
- Moratorium. “Until the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement officers is authorized by an enactment of the General Assembly, a law enforcement officer shall not use facial recognition technology,” except as allowed for drones (2019, No. 166 (Adj. Sess.), §14, uncodified). The drone statute bars biometric matching on drone data about anyone other than the target (20 V.S.A. §4622(d)(2)). The 2026 consumer data privacy act, effective January 1, 2028, says it does not modify the moratorium or authorize law enforcement use (Act 145).
Changes, 2023 to 2026
Consumer genetic testing companies may not give data to government without a warrant or consent
A direct-to-consumer genetic testing company “shall not disclose ... any information about a consumer to a government entity, including the consumer’s genetic data or name,” without a search warrant issued on probable cause, or unless the consumer gives express consent after notice. Disclosure to insurers and employers is also barred. Violations are unfair and deceptive acts enforced by the Attorney General. Where laws conflict, the one giving consumers the most privacy protection controls.
For practitioners: In a genetic genealogy case using a consumer company’s records, ask for the warrant or the customer’s express consent. The act does not say whether a user’s opt-in on a public genealogy site counts as consent.
Duty to submit to a warrant-authorized blood draw; hindering it is criminal refusal
New §1201(j): a person suspected of impaired driving “shall submit to the collection of an evidentiary blood sample when a warrant for that person’s blood is issued”; the right to challenge the warrant remains. A person who “knowingly hinders the collection of an evidentiary blood sample” under a warrant may be charged with criminal refusal (§1202(d)(6)(C)). Several thresholds change from “above” to “at or above” a legal limit. The act also created an Impaired Driving Processing Task Force, which was to report by November 15, 2025 and ceased to exist February 1, 2026.
For practitioners: Resisting a blood warrant can now bring a refusal charge; the warrant itself can still be challenged.
Survivors may learn the status and location of their sexual assault kit
New right: “the right to be informed of the status and location of the sexual assault evidence collection kit.” Existing rights are unchanged: delivery of the kit to a forensics lab within 72 hours, preservation for the maximum limitations period, notice of DNA profile matches, and, on written request, 60 days’ notice before destruction.
For practitioners: The right is to information; no statute creating a kit tracking system was found.
DNA expungement notice sent by ordinary mail
After purging a DNA record and destroying the sample, the Department must notify the person “by mail” instead of “by certified mail.” Database scope and expungement grounds are unchanged.
For practitioners: Notice now goes by regular mail; if a client has not received it, ask the Department to confirm the purge.
Bills that did not pass, and a proposed court rule
- H.904 (2025-2026), an automated DNA tracking system to route DNA match notifications and record follow-up. It was referred to the Committee on Judiciary on February 17, 2026 and died when the General Assembly adjourned sine die in May 2026 (H.904).
- H.564 (2025-2026), compensation for wrongful convictions, was referred to the Committee on Judiciary on January 6, 2026 and died when the General Assembly adjourned sine die in May 2026 (H.564).
- Proposed court rule: an amendment to V.R.E. 807(a)(4) would update a cross-reference to Title 33. Comments are due December 6, 2026 (proposed rules).
A measure that did not take effect: Executive Order 01-25 (January 15, 2025) would have reorganized the Department of Public Safety as an Agency of Public Safety on April 16, 2025. The Senate disapproved it by S.R. 10 on March 20, 2025 (S.R. 10).
Checked and unchanged
- 20 V.S.A. §§1931-1945 (DNA database): the only 2023 to 2026 change is Act 46, above. Scope was last amended in 2015.
- 13 V.S.A. ch. 182 (post-conviction DNA testing): no 2023 to 2026 amendments.
- 23 V.S.A. §1203 (breath test operators and analysis rules): only a technical amendment to §1203(g), on Chief Medical Examiner crash-death reports (2023, No. 85 (Adj. Sess.), §285, effective July 1, 2024).
- 20 V.S.A. §4622 (drones) and the 2019, No. 166 facial recognition moratorium: no amending act among the 2023 to 2026 acts, all of which were searched.
- Each appropriations act has a “Public safety - Forensic Laboratory” line. These are funding, not law changes.
Last updated October 20, 2026Source: United States Council for Law & InvestigationCite as: United States Council for Law & Investigation, “Vermont forensic science oversight: Forensic Ledger,” uscli.org/forensic-science-tracker/vermont (last updated October 20, 2026). Text licensed CC BY 4.0.