2014/12/17

WV Gazette December 15, 2014: State Police crime lab meeting new, stricter standards

The State Police crime lab is complying with stricter standards to maintain its accreditation with an international crime lab accrediting board, officials announced at a press conference on Monday. The West Virginia State Police Forensic Laboratory has been accredited with the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board, which accredits most forensic laboratories in the United States, since 1994. The organization is now requiring crime labs it accredits to meet 400 standards, hundreds more than earlier requirements, to maintain accreditation with the program, according to Ralph Keaton, retired executive director of the board.Approximately 200 of the 410 laboratories the organization accredits have met the new international standards, Keaton said.“Every user of forensic services would like to know their lab is doing good work,” he said. “This is kind of the gold standard that has to be met in order to establish you have a quality system in place to do good forensic work.”Keaton said increasing demands on crime labs, including the processing of DNA evidence, led to a need for new accreditation requirements since the first accreditations occurred in 1982. “You did something that’s incredible,” he said, addressing a group of crime lab employees at State Police headquarters in South Charleston. “You’ve scored 100 percent on the standards, and you’re to be commended for that.”Keaton said the accreditation board started as a response to a U.S. Department of Justice Law Enforcement Assistance Administration review of crime labs in the 1970s. more