LAPD Crime Lab Rebounds

The Los Angeles Police Department crime lab, completing a long march back to honor, has gained national accreditation, an achievement greater than the words imply.

For example, accreditation for a school is often a pretty low threshold, as in yes, the campus will be open and functioning when you show up for class. But for forensic crime labs, accreditation by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors is a mark of exacting standards, particularly considering that two out of three of the nation’s crime laboratories do not have such credentials. There is no requirement that they do; just seven of California’s 19 county and municipal labs are accredited, including those run by the Los Angeles and Orange County sheriff’s departments. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department has begun the long review process for such status.

The LAPD crime lab was the first of its kind in the nation, and it provided a model. But it never received national accreditation and in recent years had a hollow image, and even that was destroyed by an aggressive defense in the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial. Too many errors, too small a staff, too much outdated equipment and more.

Over the past three years, new hires and training programs and $3 million in facility and equipment upgrades have changed all that. Now, the officials who made that happen, from the mayor and the City Council members to the LAPD chief, can rightfully bask in the glow of accomplishment.

Meanwhile, there are moves afoot to merge the LAPD lab with that of the Sheriff’s Department for cost savings. The county Board of Supervisors has approved the change, which now goes before the City Council. Cost savings would be fine. Reductions in standards and performance would not.