Leigh Bates

The Commission discussed several agenda items including laboratory accreditation updates for various forensic laboratories, such as the renewal of the Niagara County Sheriff's Office Forensic Laboratory and the initial accreditation of the Suffolk County Police Department Identification Section. The Commission established a working group to address an anonymous complaint regarding the Onondaga County Center for Forensic Sciences Laboratory. Old business included verbal updates on the Familial Search Program, responses to DNA Subcommittee letters, and discussions on OSAC Registry standards. New business involved the review of 2025 Annual Laboratory Summaries and an update on Department of Health oversight authority for private forensic laboratories. The Commission also reviewed various laboratory disclosures.

The document contains minutes for two distinct meetings of the Commission on Forensic Science. The first meeting, held on December 11, 2025, was an informational session regarding the Organization of Scientific Area Committees on Forensic Science (OSAC), which included updates on OSAC standard implementation data from New York State laboratories and presentations from NIST, ANAB, and the Monroe County Office of the Medical Examiner Forensic Toxicology Laboratory. The second meeting, held on December 12, 2025, included the approval of the agenda and minutes from the September 26, 2025, meeting. Key discussions included entering Executive Session to discuss personnel matters, reviewing accreditation and laboratory updates for various New York laboratories (including issuing full renewal of accreditation for the NYC Police Department Police Laboratory and Suffolk County Crime Laboratory), discussing the Familial Search Program, and directing the Office of Forensic Services to conduct an annual survey regarding forensic standards. New Business included an overview of ANAB's new online platform, Audeee, and tabling the consideration of the DNA Subcommittee's binding recommendation regarding Next Generation Sequencing pending the March meeting.

The New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) is committed to building safer and stronger communities through a holistic and effective justice system. The organization's vision is to achieve a justice system that fairly and fully helps and heals people, making New York the safest large state in the nation. This is achieved by delivering substantial financial support through grants, advancing data transparency, reducing violence through initiatives like GIVE, supporting communities and victims via programs such as Project RISE and SNUG, enhancing public safety infrastructure with technology and databases, and fostering statewide collaboration through events like the Public Safety Symposium.

The New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) is committed to protecting the safety of New Yorkers and ensuring an effective justice system. Its mission is to build safer and stronger communities, aspiring to a holistic, impartial, and healing justice system that establishes New York as the nation's safest large state. Guided by values of humanity, integrity, equity, collaboration, and innovation, DCJS focuses its efforts on several key areas: providing record financial support to partners, promoting data and transparency in the criminal justice system, actively reducing violence through initiatives like GIVE, supporting communities and victims, enhancing public safety infrastructure, and leading state-level collaborations.

The meeting addressed the adoption of the February 6, 2026, agenda. Discussions included reviewing Accreditation/Laboratory updates from several entities, including the Nassau County Office of the Medical Examiner, New York City OCME, Onondaga County Center for Forensic Sciences Laboratory, Suffolk County Crime Laboratory, and New York State Police Crime Laboratory. Old Business involved a verbal update on the Partial Match and Familial Search programs and review of a letter from the Commission on Forensic Science regarding recommendations on the NIST Human Factors Report and DNA Mixture Interpretation Report. New Business featured a presentation from the New York State Police Crime Laboratory concerning ANDE Reference Sample Validation A and I-Chip: Internal Validation, followed by a request for full validation documentation. Disclosures from Monroe County Crime Laboratory, New York City OCME Department of Forensic Biology, and Westchester County Department of Laboratories & Research Division of Forensic Science were also reviewed.