This Standards Bulletin from the Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC) for Forensic Science provides a monthly update on forensic science standards moving through the OSAC Registry and standards development process, along with other OSAC news and standards-related information.
The following nine standards have been added to the OSAC Registry effective January 13, 2025.
ASB
SWGDE
Visit the OSAC Registry webpage to view these new standards!
The OSAC Registry now contains 225 standards (152 published and 73 OSAC Proposed) representing over 20 forensic science disciplines.
The following standards have been approved for a 3-year extension on the OSAC Registry:
The OSAC Registry approval process for published standards is used to review existing SDO-published standards for technical quality and placement on the Registry.
The OSAC Registry approval process for OSAC Proposed Standards is used to review OSAC drafted standards for technical quality and placement on the Registry. The following draft OSAC Proposed Standards are being considered for submission to an SDO. The final draft provided to the SDO will be available on the OSAC Registry as an “OSAC Proposed Standard.”
OSAC welcomes comments on whether the following drafts are suitable for release to the SDO and suggestions for improvements in content and wording. To be considered, comments must be placed in the OSAC Comment Form and sent to comments [at] nist.gov (comments[at]nist[dot]gov) by 11:59 p.m. ET on February 3, 2025.
There are 18 forensic science standards currently open for public comment at the following SDOs:
ASB:
ASTM International:
SWGDE:
Visit OSAC’s Standards Open for Comment webpage to access these documents and for instructions on how to submit your comments.
From ASB:
Visit ASB’s Published Documents webpage to view this standard.
From SWGDE:
Visit SWGDE’s Published Documents webpage to view these standards.
On December 27, 2024, a Project Initiation Notification System (PINS) was published on pages 2-3 of the ANSI Standards Action. This will begin ASB’s work on the following standards:
On January 3, 2025, a Project Initiation Notification System (PINS) was published on page 2 of the ANSI Standards Action. This will begin ASB’s work on the following standard:
On January 10, 2025, a Project Initiation Notification System (PINS) was published on pages 2-3 of the ANSI Standards Action. This will begin ASTM’s work on the following standards:
OSAC Registry Implementation
2024 was a very successful year for the OSAC Registry Implementation Survey. We finished the year with a total of 224 Forensic Science Service Providers (FSSPs) having contributed to the survey since the OSAC Program Office (OPO) started collecting implementation data in 2021. This represents an increase of 72 new contributions over the past calendar year with a majority of these entries coming in the last six months.
One of the biggest highlights for this process was the launch of the new online survey that has made it far simpler for FSSPs to enter, monitor, and update their standards implementation progress. This system has also made it simpler for OPO to collate and evaluate standards implementation data to gain greater insights regarding how the standards are being used, measure the impact of individual standards, and better determine how improvements can be made in the standards development process.
For those interested, an overview of the data collected through this survey will be presented on Thursday, February 20th during the Criminalistics session of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences annual meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.
If you haven’t yet contributed to the survey, please consider joining the momentum and completing a survey for your organization. More information and additional links to resources and the survey itself can be found here.
If you have any questions or need more clarification about an OSAC Proposed Standard, please contact forensics [at] nist.gov (forensics[at]nist[dot]gov).
Mark your calendars! The Facial & Iris Identification Subcommittee is hosting a virtual Research Needs Symposium on February 27th! Join Virtually HERE
Check out this article, A Practical Approach to Mitigating Cognitive Bias Effects in Forensic Casework, published by Carolina Rojas et al., with the Department of Forensic Sciences in Costa Rica, and OSAC’s Human Factors Task Group Co-Vice Chair, Adele Quigley-McBride.
After reviewing the published LSU-E/Information Management Worksheet in 2022, the Department of Forensic Sciences in Costa Rica, an OSAC Registry Implementer, began a pilot test on the worksheet and other bias mitigation strategies within their Questioned Documents Unit. OSAC’s Human Factors Task Group Co-Vice Chair, Adele Quigley-McBride, a renowned expert in the field, provided invaluable assistance during their journey to implement the bias mitigation pilot program.
Together, they were able to write and publish a paper that not only detailed the steps taken to balance recommendations, but also emphasized their practicality. The recommendations were carefully chosen to be both important in reducing the risk of bias and feasible with the resources available. The paper was designed to be easily understood, even for those with no human factors experience/training. It primarily focuses on the practical aspects of implementing the changes that human factors representatives at OSAC often suggest, as demonstrated by the cost-benefit analysis conducted by the Department of Forensic Sciences in Costa Rica laboratory.
NIST Researcher, Briana Capistran, published, Speeding Up the Wheels of Justice: How NIST Resources Can Help Crime Labs Work Faster, an informative and comprehensive instruction guide for forensic labs to check or validate their instruments using a free resource for forensic analysts. This practical guide includes the Rapid GC-MS Validation Template, a tool that will surely boost your confidence in your work! Click here to learn more!
The Alcohol, Drugs and Impairment Division (ADID) of the National Safety Council (NSC) consists of 100 toxicology professionals who assist with developing tools, such as position statements, and assists the NSC with policy to reduce death and injury from alcohol, drugs, and impairment. Recently, the NSC-ADID released a public statement recommending forensic toxicology service providers to adopt consensus-based standards, to include standards on the OSAC Registry.
Read the Letter to the Editor to learn more!
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published DNA Mixture Interpretation: A Scientific Foundation Review. This report reviews the methods that forensic laboratories use to interpret evidence containing a mixture of DNA from two or more people.
NIST published a draft version of this report in June 2021 and invited public comment at that time. Sixty-three sets of comments spanning almost 450 pages were received and are available on the NIST website. The study authors considered all comments when preparing the final version of this report.
The new version considers several studies published since the draft report was released and includes updated data from DNA analyst proficiency tests and other sources. The preface of the report contains a list of significant revisions.
Read more about the report and background information.
NIST’s Rapid Drug Analysis and Research (RaDAR) lab provides near real-time insight into the nation’s illicit drug landscape. By analyzing drug samples sent from local, state and federal partners, the lab identifies new compounds appearing in the illegal drug supply that may pose a health and safety threat to users, public health workers and law enforcement.
Check out the latest RaDar newsletter where NIST researchers report on their latest findings, including the continued presence of the industrial chemical BTMPS in fentanyl samples. There’s also a breakdown for the East and West coasts of the top compounds detected within samples for November.
Subscribe to the newsletter to keep up with the latest results, analysis and publications.
Thank you to all who attended the Forensics@NIST 2024 event, held virtually from November 18 to November 21, 2024. 1672 people from 72 countries registered to attend, with 1072 actual attendees present for the meeting and workshops to learn about advanced methods in metrology, computer science, and statistics to strengthen forensic science.
In case you missed it or would like a refresher, the presentation recordings are now available on the Forensics@NIST event page.
Forensic data often remains archived in state and local labs, only available for reference in the solution and prosecution of local crimes. By making these data more widely available for a more global forensic intelligence approach, agencies can use datasets to link and track crime patterns in a more collaborative manner to help to solve, disrupt, and prevent interjurisdictional crime.
The National Institute of Justice recently released a framework that provides guidance for state and local law enforcement agencies and their forensic laboratories on developing or enhancing a forensic intelligence program.
Benefits of this forensic intelligence approach includes:
The Forensic Intelligence Framework PDF is free and accessible to all.
Bloodstain pattern analysis is a forensic science discipline that reconstructs a blood-shedding event by examining and interpreting the attributes of bloodstains. It can provide crucial evidence in some legal cases, aiding in crime scene reconstruction and supporting or contradicting witness testimony.
The 2009 National Research Council report, Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward, questioned the validity of bloodstain pattern analysis, specifically stating that “the uncertainties associated with bloodstain pattern analysis are enormous” and “the opinions of bloodstain pattern analysts are more subjective than scientific.” This conclusion was repeated in a 2016 report from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Since then, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has funded error rate studies of practicing bloodstain pattern analysts. The results allow practitioners in the justice system to consider the value and the limits of analysts’ testimony. NIJ also supports a research portfolio that applies experimental and computational fluid dynamics to better understand the physical processes involved in bloodstain pattern formation.
Check out the bloodstain pattern analysis reading and resources below:
As part of a cooperative agreement with NIST, the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) is developing training, tools, and resources to enhance implementation efforts and broaden awareness of forensic science standards among communities of interest.
Media. To stay up to date on the latest OSAC news, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn (#ForensicOSAC).
Contact Us. If you have feedback, or questions, or want to learn more about how you can help strengthen forensic science through standards, contact us at forensics [at] nist.gov (forensics[at]nist[dot]gov).