SPRINGFIELD, Ill., Aug. 20 (UPI) -- The Illinois State Police has canceled its contract with a Virginia crime lab because it says the lab's work is unreliable.
The agency said quality control tests showed that Bode Technology Group failed to identify semen in 22 percent of evidence samples.
The New York Times reported the agency sent letters to the U.S. Justice Department and state law enforcement agencies describing the problems.
Illinois plans to retest every sample where Bode found no semen and the state police want the company to pay for the testing, the newspaper said.
Bode is a subsidiary of ChoicePoint. An executive, Kevin McElfresh, said the company has been working with the state police to upgrade procedures since the testing problems were identified in May -- and that Bode was "disappointed" in the decision to cancel the contract.
"The work provided by Bode was imprecise and we can't tolerate that type of work in this business," Larry Trent, the state police director, said Friday.
