Introduction

The American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors Accreditation Initiative: Successes, Challenges, and Future Directions

The American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors Accreditation Initiative: Successes, Challenges, and Future Directions

Date

August 2022

Overview

In 2019, the American Society of Crime Lab Directors (ASCLD) launched the ASCLD Accreditation Initiative (AAI) in collaboration with the National Institute of Justice’s (NIJ’s) Forensic Technology Center of Excellence (FTCOE) at RTI International. The AAI was designed to leverage expertise and knowledge from laboratory directors, quality assurance managers, and technical subject matter experts who serve as mentors to support forensic science service providers (FSSPs) committed to achieving international accreditation within an 18-month timeline. To date, eight FSSPs have been accredited.

This report summarizes prominent themes that emerged from interviews conducted by the FTCOE with key AAI stakeholders, and guidance for ASCLD and FSSPs moving forward. Overall, stakeholders had highly positive experiences in the program and believe it has tremendous value for facilitating accreditation.



Funding for this Forensic Technology Center of Excellence report was provided by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.

The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Contact us at ForensicCOE@rti.org with any questions and subscribe to our newsletter for notifications.


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