ABSTRACT
An international survey was conducted on the benefits and limitations of accreditation to ISO17025 in forensic science, and how quality management could be improved to reflect the complexities of the end-to-end process. The survey was in response to growing concern within the forensic science community that the standard ISO17025 (and ISO17020), which is the backbone of forensic science accreditation, does not have sufficient depth and reach to properly address the quality of both the inputs (crime scene traces) and outputs (e.g., opinions in a report) of forensic science. The survey was developed around three themes: (1) fitness for purpose, (2) competences and (3) education & training. It targeted directors and senior managers, including quality managers, of forensic science laboratories/facilities. The survey was developed by the research team and disseminated with the cooperation of the International Forensic Strategic Alliance (IFSA) and six regional Networks: the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors (ASCLD), the European Network of Forensic Science institutes (ENFSI), the Australian and New Zealand Forensic Executive Committee (ANZFEC) (formerly SMANZFL), Acadamia Iberoamericana de Criminalistica Estudios Forenses (AICEF), Asian Forensic Sciences Network (AFSN) and Southern Africa Regional Forensic Science Network (SARFS). What emerged for each of the three themes of the survey are areas of concern where the forensic science community should reconsider its approach to quality management if it is to have continuing value and relevance into the future. The results are evaluated and discussed. Briefly, the results include evidence of a lack of fitness for purpose of ISO17025 as a standard for the forensic science continuum, a lack of agreement on what forensic science is and poor levels of recognition of crime scene investigation, many competences, particularly cognitive competences, are not identified, monitored or assessed and the incentive to gain accreditation and maintain continuous improvement is intrinsic rather than customer driven.
ABSTRACT
Forensic science is gaining some solid ground in the area of effective crime prevention, especially in the areas where more sophisticated use of available technology is prevalent. All it takes is high-level cooperation among nations that can help them deal with criminality that adopts a cross-border nature more and more. It is apparent that cooperation will not be enough on its own and this development will require a network of qualified forensic laboratories spread over Europe. It is argued in this paper that forensic science laboratories play an important role in the fight against crime. Another, complimentary argument is that forensic science laboratories need to be better involved in the fight against crime. For this to be achieved, a good level of cooperation should be established and maintained. It is also noted that harmonization is required for such cooperation and seeking accreditation according to an internationally acceptable standard, such as ISO/IEC 17025, will eventually bring harmonization as an end result. Because, ISO/IEC 17025 as an international standard, has been a tool that helps forensic science laboratories in the current trend towards accreditation that can be observed not only in Europe, but also in the rest of the world of forensic science. In the introduction part, ISO/IEC 17025 states that "the acceptance of testing and calibration results between countries should be facilitated if laboratories comply with this international standard and if they obtain accreditation from bodies which have entered into mutual recognition agreements with equivalent bodies in other countries using this international standard." Furthermore, it is emphasized that the use of this international standard will assist in the harmonization of standards and procedures. The background of forensic science cooperation in Europe will be explained by using an existing European forensic science network, i.e. ENFSI, in order to understand the current status of forensic science in Europe better. The Council of Europe and the European Union approaches to forensic science will also be discussed by looking at the legal instruments and documents published by these two European organizations. Data collected from 52 European forensic science laboratories will be examined and findings will be evaluated from a quality assurance and accreditation point of view. The need for harmonization and accreditation in forensic science will be emphasized. The steps that should be taken at the European level for increasing and strengthening the role of European forensic science laboratories in the fight against crime will be given as recommendations in the conclusion.