EDITORIAL : SLOPPY SLEUTHING THE FBI'S FORENSIC LAB IS UNDER THE PUBLIC MICROSCOPE FOR ITS SLIPSHOD WORK.

THE nation's top sleuthing shop - the FBI's high-tech forensic lab - has grown sloppy, lax and inept, an investigation has determined.

While the report is cause for concern, the agency's response is encouraging. Within two days, FBI officials transferred or removed the heads of the chemistry and explosives units and the three senior FBI agents who evaluated evidence in the Oklahoma City bombing case. Both actions were part of a thorough overhaul of the lab's operations as a result of the Justice Department's investigation, officials said.

Swift and appropriate action to restore faith in the once highly-regarded lab is vital.

Errors at the lab are already providing defense lawyers with ammunition to use in some cases and appear to threaten the FBI with challenges to expert forensic testimony in cases based on the more than 600,000 evidence examinations conducted each year by the lab. The problem could expand beyond federal cases to affect evidence in thousands of state and local cases examined by the FBI each year.

The FBI now must produce evidence that it is committed to restoring professionalism and the highest scientific standards that in the past put it on the cutting edge of crime fighting.