Police in Virginia Beach used forged documents that linked people's DNA to a crime to get them to confess or cooperate with investigators, Virginia's attorney general says. The city says the police department ended the practice last year.
“This was an extremely troubling and potentially unconstitutional tactic that abused the name of the Commonwealth to try to coerce confessions,” Herring said.
The strategy was discovered last year after a prosecutor asked the Department of Forensic Science to provide a certified copy of a document that police falsely claimed came from the department. The AG’s Office of Civil Rights launched an investigation and then proposed a “conciliation agreement” to stop the practice and reform department policies.
The terms of the agreement will remain in effect for at least two years, the state said. The Office of Civil Rights will notify the people who were interrogated with forged documents.