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ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board Acquires Forensic Quality Services
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News Release
FQS Office Has Moved Size constraints and location motivated our decision to relocate the FQS office. The new office is located approximately one mile from Tampa International Airport in the desirable Westshore area of Tampa, FL. Many of the hotels in the area offer free shuttle service to and from local hotels. The FQS new office is located at Cypress Commons, 5300 West Cypress Street, Tampa, FL 33607. The FQS website address and staff email addresses are unchanged.
FQS Receives Inter American Accreditation Cooperation (IAAC) Recognition
On March 22, Bill Tilstone signed the Inter American Accreditation Cooperation (IAAC) Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) on behalf of FQS. A relatively short sentence with some strange names - what does it mean for FQS and our accredited agencies? The core issue is the question of who accredits the accreditors and to what standard? Just as there is an ISO standard for the agencies, so there is one for the accrediting bodies (ABs), namely ISO/IEC 17011. The standard is exhaustive, covering everything from the BA's management system, through the technical competence of its assessors, to the financial strength of the company.
The global community of ABs and accredited agencies operates a mutual recognition process, consisting of regional accreditation cooperation and mutual recognition arrangements. IAAC is the regional cooperation for the Americas, and evaluates applicant ABs to ISO/IEC 17011 and supplemental guides. FQS successfully completed its evaluation early this year, and became a signatory to the MLA. The mutual recognition part means that the accreditations provided by any signatory to the MLA are deemed to be equivalent.
The outcome of this is that you, our customers, have external verification that FQS is operating an accreditation program to the highest international standards, and your accreditation has national and international recognition by all cooperation MLA signatories.
Workshops and Training
ISO Without Tears Workshops
The next 3-day general workshop will be offered on:
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March 12-14, 2012; Registration deadline is February 29, 2012
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August 6-8, 2012; Registration deadline is July 20, 2012
Please click on the following link for more information: "Workshops & Training".
Understanding ISO 17020 for the Forensics Workshop will be offered on:
- March 15-16, 2012; Registration deadline is February 29, 2012
- August 9-10, 2012; Registration deadline is July 20, 2012
A 1-2 day workshop for General Public and FQS approved assessors is being offered. Please click on the "Workshops & Training" link on the menu at left to learn more.
As most of you know this report will have impact on the forensic community and FQS believes in providing you all the information possible and will update you as we progress through new challenges. The report is welcomed and we hope to use it at as a tool toward future improvements and providing the highest degree of quality toward the forensic community.
FQS position statement regarding the NAS report.
Please contact us with any questions or concerns.
The report is available at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12589 and is linked below. Disable browser pop-up blockers to view the linked document.
Police Science Accreditation
Most of you are aware that the recently published report from the National Academies of Science (NAS) was highly critical of several areas of forensic science, and recommended that laboratory accreditation should be mandatory. Mandatory "laboratory" accreditation is therefore a real issue that crime scene units and related operations in police agencies will have to deal with. Indeed the whole concept of provision of services from within a law enforcement agency was criticized by the NAS panel. Recently we reached out to the police science community and invited their participation in developing guidance for accreditation of crime scene examination, latent prints, and digital evidence. For more information on the Police Science Accreditation program, please read our flyer and contact Terry Mills, Manager of Accreditations, at 850-375-6992 or tm@forquality.org. 