Chandler Crime Lab Now Internationally Accredited

The Chandler Police Department has the first munic­i­pal crime lab in Arizona to be accred­ited by ASCLD-LAB ISO require­ments. The lab offi­cially received accred­i­ta­tion (a vol­un­tary process) May 6, 2011.

Having worked in crime labs going through accred­i­ta­tion, and still con­sult­ing in labs that are accred­ited under the same require­ments, I can per­son­ally tes­tify that this is no small feat.

Congratulations to all the staff at the CPD crime lab, as well as the depart­ment in gen­eral for all their hard work.

The Chandler police crime lab that uses high-tech equip­ment and han­dles 7,000 cases a year has become the first city lab in the state to receive inter­na­tional accreditation.

The American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors Laboratory Accreditation Board bestowed the accred­i­ta­tion May 6 on the 23-member Chandler Police Forensic Services Section, on the sec­ond floor of the main police headquarters.

The lab met more than 450 stan­dards, sub­mit­ted lengthy con­for­mance forms and was care­fully inspected, said Rita Dyas, Chandler’s foren­sic ser­vices manager.

“We are respon­si­ble for crime-scene response, controlled-substance analy­sis, blood-alcohol analy­sis, latent-print pro­cess­ing and latent-print com­par­i­son,” Dyas said.

Dyas said it took years to put together the forms and ensure the lab met accred­i­ta­tion standards.

“We are uti­liz­ing pro­ce­dures that are the indus­try stan­dard,” Dyas said. “We have always fol­lowed and prac­ticed indus­try standard.”

The crime lab has three crime-scene vans with equip­ment such as foren­sic light sources, tripods, ultra­vi­o­let lights, cam­eras and latent-processing equipment.

One crime scene tech­ni­cian goes to each scene, pri­mar­ily lift­ing fin­ger­prints, pho­tograph­ing the crime scene and pos­si­bly col­lect­ing hairs and fibers.

Much has hap­pened in the five years since Dyas became lab super­vi­sor. Staff and space have dou­bled. Rotating sergeants were replaced with full-time civil­ian supervisors.

The lab is on the cut­ting edge of tech­nol­ogy; for exam­ple, crim­i­nol­o­gists use elec­tro­sta­tic dust print lifters to locate and lift dusty prints from smooth surfaces.

“Probably our newest tech­nol­ogy that we have used over the last few years that has helped is our abil­ity to run palm prints through the Arizona Automated Fingerprint Identification System,” Dyas said.

“In the past, that data­base only con­tained prints from the tips of your fin­gers. But now you can obtain prints from your palm as well as the writer’s edge, the side of you hand.… We have got­ten quite a few (matches) as a result of those palm prints,” she said.

The state Department of Public Safety crime lab also received the accred­i­ta­tion. Chandler han­dles much crime scene work for Gilbert.

Other munic­i­pal­i­ties with crime labs are Scottsdale, Mesa and Tucson, Dyas said. She said Scottsdale and Phoenix should receive inter­na­tional accred­i­ta­tions in the com­ing months.

Originally pub­lished on AZCentral.com.