Chief orders drug lab closed permanently

The San Francisco Police Department will close its scandal-marred drug lab permanently and use outside testers to analyze narcotics evidence, Police Chief George Gascón said Wednesday.

That will enable the Police Department’s crime lab at Hunters Point to focus on testing of weapons and DNA evidence, areas that are “quite frankly of greater importance to our [...]

SF police to shut down troubled drug testing lab

SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco police said Wednesday they have decided to shut down their troubled drug testing lab and outsource the work.

The unit had been indefinitely shuttered since March 9, shortly after former lab technician Deborah Madden was accused of skimming cocaine evidence.

Prosecutors have dismissed more than 600 drug cases in the wake of [...]