(RALEIGH) -- Two independent audits have affirmed that the State Bureau of Investigation laboratory’s DNA unit meets high national standards.  The audit results come after the lab ended a record-setting year of using the state’s DNA database to crack cases and is solving even more crimes by adding samples from certain arrestees.

“This good work by the SBI DNA unit takes criminals off our streets, exonerates the innocent and can bring justice to victims and their families,” Attorney General Roy Cooper said Tuesday in a press release.

The SBI requested that federally qualified auditors perform two separate on-site reviews of the laboratory’s DNA work in late 2010. The reviews found that both the casework unit, which examines forensic evidence, and the database unit, which analyzes and uploads DNA profiles, meet FBI standards.

In the first audit, the auditors did find an issue in both units regarding dates on chemical reagents and an additional issue for the caseworking unit.  The issues were resolved.