December 15, 2015
Directs the Department of Justice to establish, staff and equip a forensic crime laboratory in the Virgin Islands, and requires that the laboratory be accredited by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors / Laboratory Accreditation Board, the National Forensic Science Technology Center, or another nationally recognized accrediting organization with substantially equivalent or more comprehensive requirements. Section 2 directs the laboratory to perform services necessary for the recognition and proper preservation, identification and scientific analysis of evidence materials pertaining to criminal investigations. Section 3 appropriates $500,000 from the Internal Revenue Matching Fund for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2016, available until expended. This is the territory's crime-laboratory authorization; the Virgin Islands Police Department has continued to procure forensic serology and DNA testing by contract.