Assessors find ‘nonconformities’ with national standards at RI Crime Lab. What to know.

• Rhode Island State Crime Lab assessors found 15 nonconformities with national standards during a March review.
• Some nonconformities involved firearms analysis, an area under scrutiny after a 2021 error.
• The lab has until May 30 to address these issues and is currently working with assessors to achieve re-accreditation.

The Rhode Island State Crime Laboratory isn’t through the entire re-accreditation process yet, but assessors have found that the lab can competently follow policies, processes and procedures and meet “all applicable accreditation requirements.”

At the same time, a team of assessors also found that the lab was not conforming to 15 national standards – or 8.7% – out of 172 applicable standards during their March review of the lab, according to the assessors’ report.

Some of those “nonconformities” involved the part of the lab that examines and analyzes firearms, which drew heavy scrutiny last year after employees linked spent bullet shells from the scene of a 2021 Pawtucket homicide to the wrong gun.

The lab has until May 30 to complete its “action guidelines.”

The lab’s longtime director, Dennis Hilliard, told the Rhode Island State Crime Laboratory Commission during a May 22 meeting that the nonconformities were being “addressed.”

“All the nonconformities are being addressed and are under review by the audit team leader,” Hilliard said.

After discussion about the report, the commission voted to go into executive session “discuss and potentially vote on matters pertaining to the job performance and/or character of a person or persons,” according to the meeting agenda. When the commission returned to open session, members did not disclose what was discussed.

What were the ‘nonconformities’ found?

Assessors from the ANSI National Accreditation Board found that the wording of some procedures within the lab were insufficient to “ensure the consistent application of testing as well as consistency in the reporting of results between examiners,” specifically with firearms and “fire debris.”

They found that the lab had not sufficiently recorded its original observations regarding firearms to enable the same analysis to be repeated again.

In another part of the lab that examines “fire debris,” the assessors found that a manual does not include guidelines for interpreting the examiners’ analysis and its method does not provide any option for reporting results that aren’t conclusive, according to their report.

The lab operates under 172 applicable standards, according to Hilliard and was not conformed with almost 9% of those standards.

What comes next?

The report is not final and the assessors have not yet approved the lab for re-accreditation.

Those who rely on the lab, referenced in the report as “customers,” have not been told about the preservation of certain items created during the testing of fire debris, the report says.

“Some of the things they brought up we’ve been doing for years, but now they’re an issue,” Hilliard told the commission.

“So in this case,” Hilliard said, “I think, due to our situation, they were being just diligent in providing a full assessment and that they were looking at pretty much everything that could go wrong.”

He likened the way that lab personnel “interpret” standards to baseball officiating.

“One umpire might call a strike,” he said, “the other umpire might not call a strike.”

RI Crime Lab has been under scrutiny

After the discovery of problems with firearms analysis last year, the lab suspended that type of toolmark work by in-house staff, relying on mutual aid from other New England states.

Later, it turned to private contractors for work that involves identifying connections between bullets and the guns that fire them.

At the present time, the lab is operating with 10 in-house staff and two private contractors, who are handling all firearms analysis, according to Hilliard.