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Quality System

The GBI Division of Forensic Sciences (DOFS) maintains a comprehensive quality assurance program that allows our laboratory system to meet all of the requirements of two accrediting bodies, as well as the additional quality standards we have set for ourselves. 

On January 20, 1998, the DOFS Quality Manual was put into place.  In 1999, the laboratory system achieved ISO 9002 registration and ASCLD/LAB accreditation.  With these accomplishments, DOFS became the first full-service forensic laboratory system in the world to be granted both ISO 9002 and ASCLD/LAB recognition.

In 2000-2001, the laboratory system moved toward a new accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025 General Requirements for the Competence of Testing and Calibration Laboratories.  The DOFS Quality Manual was reformatted, procedures were developed to meet these additional requirements, and the laboratory applied for ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation.  DOFS voluntarily discontinued ISO 9002 certification in 2001 upon achieving ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation.

Over the years, the format of the DOFS Quality Manual has evolved from multiple notebooks containing paper copies of procedures to electronic procedures accessible via the laboratory computer system.  The procedures are dynamic and subject to revision in an ongoing improvement process.  

Because the GBI Division of Forensic Sciences has a proven quality system that meets the ASCLD/LAB Legacy and ISO/IEC 17025 requirements, our quality manual is sought after by crime laboratories throughout the world.  Approximately one hundred (100) local, state and federal laboratories have received copies of the DOFS Quality Manual over the years.  DOFS has been said to be the prototype for the new era of crime lab accreditation.