Upgrading of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/ Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB) Accreditation Manual

Zusammenfassung

ASCLD/LAB has requested that the Office of Law Enforcement Standards (OLES) at NIST assist in upgrading its laboratory accreditation program to meet applicable international standards. ASCLD/LAB operates an accreditation program for crime laboratories, with members consisting of 139 domestic and 14 foreign laboratories. The work of performing laboratory audits and reviewing audit reports for accreditation is performed on a voluntary basis. The program includes criteria to judge the quality and performance of a crime laboratory and the operation of an evaluation program to identify those laboratories meeting ASCLD/LAB criteria. Accreditation is a tool to ensure that the laboratories' contributions to the criminal justice system are consistent, repeatable, and scientifically based. The current criteria and accreditation program consists of procedures prepared by members of the ASCLD/LAB based on their professional knowledge and experience in crime laboratory operations prior to the establishment of international standards. They must now be modified to conform to established world-wide accepted standards. As part of the phenomena of globalization of markets, several international orga