The CotoBuzz Journal, Community Journalism

We contacted ASCLD/LAB-International program manager John Neuner to help us understand the significance of the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner laboratory accreditation in the ASCLD/LAB-International program. According to Mr. Neuner “The Orange County Sheriff-Coroner laboratory is the first local government, full-service laboratory in California to be accredited in the ASCLD/LAB-International program. It was the 63^rd laboratory to be accredited by ASCLD/LAB in this relatively new program”.

Further, Neuer asserted, “the laboratory has satisfactorily demonstrated they are providing forensic science testing services in accordance with internationally accepted practices for a testing laboratory”

We asked Mr. Neuner for copies of ASCLD/LAB site visit reports, as well as cost involved in the certification process. “ Site visit reports in the possession of ASCLD/LAB are not public record”, was Mr. Neuner’s response.

The reason for our interest in site reports is that we know of global companies, which have received the highest level of certification in their respective class, yet seem to produce not very good product.

The OCSD requires an extreme corporate culture makeover and Sheriff Hutchens has billed herself as just the right tool. With the politicized environment and not so stellar history, any OCSD accreditation, without independent verification, is at best suspect.

Consider that in the private sector, accreditation is generally expensive, and is usually pursued as a function of organizational culture, as a competitive weapon (read PR) and or as a “pay to play” – that is, no accreditation, no business. In all cases, there needs to be substance behind the accreditation – Remember the Ford is Job One flop?

Implied in all this is that P&L (read accountability) is part of the decision making process. Also consider that in general, accredited organizations with poor quality performance as in Ford is Job One, the number one issue is incompetent management. Further, consider that accreditation puts much weight on management, the ASCLD/LAB Accreditation is no different

Now consider that the OCSD lab is NOT a self-organized, self-managed organization. Further, consider that the OCSD organizational culture and subcultures are influenced by the OCSD, the OCDA, the OCBOS and the AOCSD, among other special interest groups and or departments.

So, some of the questions that come to mind are: How much did the lab pay for the accreditation? Is the OCDA expecting a higher rate of conviction as a result of the certification? Did the ASCLD/LAB accreditation team take into account that the lab is not an independently managed organization?

As we have said before, unless there is unequivocal, reliable, independent verification, the ASCLD/LAB accreditation is simply one more instance of Quality is Job One, at taxpayer's expense!

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