NY Gov Cuomo — Investigate Nassau County Crime Lab

Closing the doors sim­ply isn’t enough. The gov­er­nor wants a review of what Nassau County has been up to. Nobody likes a cover-up.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has appointed the state Inspector gen­eral to review test­ing pro­ce­dures and pro­to­cols of a police depart­ment crime lab that was closed after rev­e­la­tions that it was gen­er­at­ing inac­cu­rate mea­sure­ments in drug cases.

Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto said in a state­ment Friday that Ellen Biben’s office has the resources to con­duct the review with­out incur­ring fur­ther tax­payer costs.

Nassau County offi­cials closed the crime lab last week after dis­cov­er­ing the prob­lems. Police super­vi­sors were aware of the inac­cu­ra­cies months before a national accred­it­ing agency put the lab on pro­ba­tion in December.

The county’s dis­trict attor­ney applauded Cuomo’s deci­sion to pick the inspec­tor general.

The inspec­tor general’s office inves­ti­gates alle­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion, fraud, crim­i­nal activ­ity and other abuses by state offi­cials and employees.

Originally posted on the Wall Street Journal Online.