D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine is calling for a change in leadership at the troubled Department of Forensic Sciences.
In letter to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Wednesday evening, Racine wrote, “I do not believe that DFS can be rehabilitated under its current leadership and write to request that you take immediate action to remove DFS leadership.”
Dr. Jenifer Smith, a veteran FBI special agent and DNA expert, has run the District’s crime lab since being appointed to the position by Bowser in 2015.
In recent months, Smith and other senior leaders at the agency have come under intense scrutiny. The lab had its accreditation to perform a wide range of forensic testing revoked last month and remains under criminal investigation over its handling of an error in a ballistics case.
With the D.C. crime lab losing accreditation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has stepped into action, hauling a massive one-of-a-kind mobile lab to help process gun evidence.