Wisconsin
Wisconsin has no forensic science commission, no lab accreditation statute and no analyst license; the Department of Justice runs the State Crime Laboratories under Attorney General rules. In 2026 it amended Wis. Stat. 907.02 to match the 2023 change to Federal Rule 702. Since 2024 the crime lab has had statutory deadlines for sexual assault kits, and since 2026 it must store unreported kits for 20 years. The state health department must also set advisory best practices for coroners and medical examiners, and child grooming was added to the arrestee DNA list.
- Sources checked
- Part of
- Forensic Ledger
At a glance
- Oversight body
- None. No forensic science commission or external lab oversight body was found. The State Crime Laboratories are part of the Department of Justice, and “The operation of the laboratories shall conform to the rules and policies established by the attorney general” (Wis. Stat. 165.75(4)). The department “may decline to provide laboratory service in any case not involving a potential charge of felony” (165.75(3)(e)).
- Lab accreditation
- No statutory requirement found in Wis. Stat. 165.75 to 165.77. Lab operations follow Attorney General rules and policies (165.75(4)), and the department must adopt rules to run the DNA data bank (165.77(8)).
- Analyst licensing
- None found. Crime lab employees are not peace officers (165.75(3)(b)), and lab services “shall include appearances in court as expert witnesses” (165.75(3)(d)).
- Admissibility standard
- Wis. Stat. 907.02(1), as amended by 2025 Wis. Act 92 (907.02). A qualified expert may testify “if the proponent demonstrates to the court that it is more likely than not that the testimony is based upon sufficient facts or data, the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods, and the witness’s opinion reflects a reliable application of the principles and methods to the facts of the case.” That matches the 2023 change to Federal Rule 702. The reliability conditions themselves date from 2011 Wis. Act 2. The act first applies to actions and special proceedings “commenced on the effective date” of its applicability section, March 8, 2026 (computed); under the usual reading, cases commenced earlier stay under the 2011 text. 907.02(2) bars testimony from an expert paid on a contingency basis. Wisconsin appellate cases applying 907.02 to forensic evidence were not checked.
- Post-conviction forensic relief
- No changed-science statute. A motion for postconviction DNA testing (Wis. Stat. 974.07) may be filed “at any time after being convicted,” adjudicated delinquent or found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, for relevant evidence held by a government agency that was never DNA-tested or can be retested with a more accurate method (974.07(2)). The court “shall order” testing if the movant claims innocence, it is reasonably probable the movant would not have been prosecuted, convicted or adjudicated had exculpatory results been available, and the chain of custody holds (974.07(7)(a)). It “may order” testing if a more favorable outcome or sentence is reasonably probable (974.07(7)(b)). The district attorney must preserve biological material once the motion is served (974.07(5)). On favorable results, the court holds a hearing and may vacate, order a new trial, resentence or discharge (974.07(10)). Indigent movants are referred to the public defender, and orders are appealable as final judgments (974.07(11), (13)). Court-ordered testing has lab priority (165.75(3)(g)).
- DNA database scope
- Convictions plus violent-crime arrests. Anyone found guilty of a felony (on or after January 1, 2000) or a misdemeanor (on or after April 1, 2015) gives a sample, as do listed juvenile adjudications and commitments after a finding of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect (165.76(1)). Law enforcement “shall obtain” a specimen from “each individual arrested for a violent crime,” as defined in 165.84(7)(ab), and from each individual taken into custody for a juvenile offense that would be a violent crime if committed by an adult (165.84(7)(ah)). The lab analyzes and banks an arrestee profile only after the court reports a warrant arrest, a probable-cause finding, a failure to appear or a waiver of the preliminary examination; otherwise the specimen is destroyed after one year (165.84(7)(am), (bm)). Expungement is on written request (165.77(4)). An agency’s or the lab’s failure to follow these rules is not grounds to challenge the collection or use of a sample, or to suppress evidence derived from a data bank entry (165.77(7m)). Since March 8, 2026 (computed), child grooming is on the violent-crime list.
- Facial recognition
- No statute on police use of facial recognition was found. 2025 Assembly Bill 575, which would have barred state agencies and local governments from using facial recognition technology or data generated from it, failed to pass under Senate Joint Resolution 1 on March 23, 2026 (AB 575).
Changes, 2023 to 2026
Wis. Stat. 907.02 aligned with the 2023 federal Rule 702 change
The act inserts “proponent demonstrates to the court that it is more likely than not that the” before the three reliability conditions. It replaces “the witness has applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case” with “the witness’s opinion reflects a reliable application of the principles and methods to the facts of the case.” Section 2: “This act first applies to actions or special proceedings that are commenced on the effective date of this subsection.”
For practitioners: In cases commenced from March 8, 2026, the proponent must show each condition is more likely than not met, including that a forensic opinion stays within what the method reliably supports.
Arrestee DNA: child grooming added to the violent-crime list
The act creates the crime of grooming a child for sexual activity (s. 948.072) and adds “948.072” to the list of violent crimes in 165.84(7)(ab)1. An arrest for grooming now requires a DNA specimen under 165.84(7)(ah). As with other arrestee specimens, the lab banks the profile only after the court reports a warrant arrest, probable-cause finding or similar event.
For practitioners: A grooming arrest now triggers DNA collection; if the case ends before a probable-cause finding or similar event, the specimen should be destroyed after one year.
Unreported sexual assault kits: lab storage extended from 10 to 20 years
If the lab holds a kit and the victim chooses not to report, the lab “shall securely store the sexual assault kit for a period of 20 years,” up from 10, during which the victim may report. The rest of the act covers immunity for people who help sexual assault victims, tenant protections, and a 20-year prosecution time limit for second-degree sexual assault (s. 940.225(2)); third-degree sexual assault keeps its 10-year limit.
For practitioners: An unreported kit can now be analyzed if the victim reports up to 20 years later.
Crime lab deadlines for sexual assault kits: six months, or 60 days for urgent kits
The State Crime Laboratories must “complete processing the kit within 6 months after” receiving it (165.775(4)(b)). The lab must begin within 5 business days and finish within 60 calendar days of starting if the victim reported, the perpetrator is unknown and there is a threat to public safety, or if the kit comes from a sexual assault forensic exam in a death investigation with unexplained, unusual or suspicious circumstances. A victim’s report counts as consent to analysis. Agencies must still send kits to the lab within 14 days. The act states no remedy or admissibility consequence for a missed deadline.
For practitioners: Compare the lab’s receipt and completion dates with the six-month or 60-day deadline.
Health department must set best practices for coroners and medical examiners
In consultation with organizations of coroners, medical examiners and forensic pathologists, the Department of Health Services “shall establish best practices for coroners and medical examiners for the completion of medical certifications under s. 69.18 (2) and investigations of death under s. 979.01.” It must make them available to every coroner and medical examiner office, “encourage use” of them, and review and update them as needed. The practices are not binding. The bill came from a Legislative Council study committee on uniform death reporting standards.
For practitioners: Ask the department for its current best practices to compare with the death investigation in a case; they are advisory, not rules.
Pending bills
No bill on these topics is pending. These 2025 to 2026 bills failed to pass under Senate Joint Resolution 1 on March 23, 2026:
Checked and unchanged
- Wis. Stat. 974.07 (postconviction DNA testing): history ends at 2011 Wis. Act 38. Wis. Stat. 165.76 (who must give DNA): history ends at 2021 Wis. Act 240.
- Wis. Stat. 165.77 (data bank): 2025 Wis. Acts 127 and 130, enacted March 27, 2026, are Revisor correction bills; no change to collection or expungement was found.
- Arrestee DNA list (165.84(7)(ab)): 2023 Wis. Act 10 only updated carjacking cross-references. 2025 Wis. Act 24 § 93 (enacted August 8, 2025; effective August 10, 2025, computed) rewrote the list to cite the recodified battery statutes, with “2023 stats.” references; the act’s note calls § 93 nonsubstantive and technical, and no change in arrestee DNA scope appears on its face.
- Outside this tracker’s scope: 2023 Wis. Act 260 deletes the exclusion of division administrators from the definition of crime lab “employee” (165.75). 2025 Wis. Act 243 (SB 575, enacted April 9, 2026) concerns compensation for sexual assault forensic exams. 2025 Wis. Act 196 (AB 866, enacted April 3, 2026) amends the appointment of medical examiners in counties of 750,000 or more (59.38(5)).
- No 2023 or 2025 act on rapid DNA, forensic genetic genealogy or digital forensic standards was found in the acts lists.
Last updated October 19, 2026Source: United States Council for Law & InvestigationCite as: United States Council for Law & Investigation, “Wisconsin forensic science oversight: Forensic Ledger,” uscli.org/forensic-science-tracker/wisconsin (last updated October 19, 2026). Text licensed CC BY 4.0.