Official: Police used fake DNA reports during interrogations

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — Virginia’s attorney general says police in Virginia Beach used forged documents linking people’s DNA to a crime to get them to confess. Mark Herring made the announcement Wednesday (Jan. 12, 2022) following an investigation by the AG’s Office of Civil Rights. Herring’s office said in a statement that the city’s police department has changed its policy in the wake of the probe. Virginia Beach police serve a city of about 450,000 people. Herring said the city’s officers used fake reports purporting to be from the Virginia Department of Forensic Science at least five times during interrogations between 2016 and 2020. The city said in a statement that the practice was legal.