Special Technical Committees: How They Are Changing NIJ's Standards Development Process - Panel at the 2010 NIJ Conference

• NCJ Number: 234776
• Author(s): Debra Stoe; Gordon Gillerman; William Haskell; Robert Vondrasek; David McBath; Philip Mattson
• Date Published: June 2010
• Length: 16 pages
• Agencies: NIJ
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description; Issue Overview

Annotation

This audio and its transcript from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) 2010 Conference cover presentations from a panel on NIJ's development of technology standards for equipment used by criminal justice agencies.

Abstract

An introduction to the panel presentations notes that in the last 5 or 6 years, NIJ has developed a new process for developing standards that reflects how the rest of the world is developing standards. The panel presentations explain how other regulatory, voluntary, and private-sector agencies are developing standards. Gordon Gillerman - chief of the Standards Services Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) - discusses how NIST tests various technologies to ensure that results have high integrity and can be understood by multiple stakeholders. Philip J. Matson - program manager at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) - presents an overview of the Office of Standards at DHS and how its work is related to NIJ. DHS has been working with NIST and voluntary standards organizations in developing its standards programs. William Haskell - project officer in the Policy and Standards Development Branch of the National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) - discusses NIOSH's development and certification of respirators for workers. Robert Vondrasek - vice president of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) - discusses the NFPA and its collaboration with NIJ in developing NIJ's thinking about its new Special Technical Committee process, which brings together practitioners and technology experts to discuss the development of a particular standard. David McBath of the InterAgency Board (IAB) of the New York State Police describes the IAB, which is a repository of field operational knowledge and technical expertise.