Fix police lab or close it

The Nassau County police crime lab stopped accepting drugs for testing last week after nine samples were found to have been improperly analyzed.

Now it will have to prove that it deserves to get that work back.

The facility was put on probation last year by an accrediting board that oversees more than 400 labs. Only Nassau's is on probation. Its citations include unlabeled and unsecured evidence, uncalibrated machines, untrained workers, and water leaking onto log books. The lab was also on probation in 2006.

Now a judge has postponed sentencing in the homicide case of a man who killed two brothers on Hempstead Turnpike in 2008, saying the blood-alcohol test done by the lab may not have accurately portrayed how intoxicated the admittedly drunk man was.

The district attorney is concerned that past convictions are in jeopardy. The problems at the lab are likely to lead to the dismissal of some cases and the reduction of felony charges to misdemeanors.

A rigorous investigation by the county is crucial, and it must include asking whether Nassau can run its own lab, and whether the police department should be allowed to oversee it.

The lab work necessary to make solid criminal cases in Nassau needs to be above reproach. If the county, and the police, can't deliver that, the tests need to be run and overseen by people who can.