About ASCLD/LAB

Everyone loves a good crime story. Ours started in 1982.

The American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB) was established to meet the needs of the criminal justice system.  Originally created as a committee of ASCLD (American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors), ASCLD/LAB was incorporated in 1984 as a separate and distinct non-profit entity from ASCLD.

We were the first organization in the world dedicated
to accrediting crime labs – and we’re still the only accrediting body that focuses 100% on laboratories performing testing for criminal justice.  That singular concentration means we never let ourselves get distracted by things that aren’t important to you.  And we’ll never lose sight of the key objectives that have guided everything we do from the very beginning:

1. To improve the quality of laboratory services provided to the criminal justice system.
2. To adopt, develop and maintain criteria which may be used by a laboratory to assess its level of performance and to strengthen its operation.
3. To provide an independent, impartial and objective system by which laboratories can benefit from a total operational review.
4. To offer to the general public and to users of laboratory services a means of identifying those laboratories which have demonstrated that they meet established standards.

Members of our Board of Directors are elected by and responsible to the ASCLD/LAB Delegate Assembly.  The Delegate Assembly is composed of the directors of all laboratories and laboratory systems accredited by ASCLD/LAB.  This gives the directors of the accredited labs a voice in the governance of our organization.

In addition, ASCLD/LAB has established a Statement of Guiding Principles for Forensic Scientists and Forensic Laboratories.  Because there is no substitute for experience, commitment and especially focus — in your line of work or in ours.

**Search ASCLD/LAB Accredited Laboratories here**