Laboratory operations

Enabling great research to have impact in the forensics community requires transitioning knowledge from the lab to the market. Come learn about the steps you can take to improve the likelihood of your research impacting practice.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on April 19, 2018.

This webinar uses data from Project FORESIGHT to examine the effects of the opioid crisis on the demands for laboratory resources and the direct and indirect effects on the work of forensic laboratories.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on August 2, 2017.

This webinar will discuss the challenges facing forensic science today and provide advice for entry-level practitioners on skills needed to succeed as a forensic scientist.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on September 21, 2018.

Participants will learn about the Vicarious Trauma Organizational Readiness Guide (VT-ORG), an evidence-informed assessment of an organization’s current capacity to address vicarious trauma.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on September 13, 2018.

Between 2016 and 2017, overdose deaths increased from 63,632 to 70,237. Of these, 47,600 overdose deaths involved opioids. In 2017, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and the District of Columbia were the top five states with the highest rate of drug overdose deaths. 

Between 2016 and 2017, overdose deaths increased from 63,632 to 70,237. Of these, 47,600 overdose deaths involved opioids. In 2017, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and the District of Columbia were the top five states with the highest rate of drug overdose deaths. 

Medical examiner offices handle cases that present both technical and psychosocial challenges. Psychosocial challenges include communicating with highly distressed families of decedents and addressing complex moral and emotional concerns raised by disturbing cases and mass fatality events. This webinar provides information and skills to enhance the capacity to address the psychosocial demands of medical examiner and coroner work.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on October 17, 2019.

This webinar will discuss the impact of disturbing media on the psychological well-being (e.g., depression, secondary traumatic stress) of digital and multimedia forensic analysts.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on August 28, 2019.

In this webinar, Dr. Christiansen will discuss some of the relevant issues which affect law enforcement officers, firefighters, and other first responders.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on December 13, 2018.

Watch a follow-up webinar by Dr. Christiansen presented in Aubust 2019.

Dr. David Christiansen discusses some of the relevant issues which affect law enforcement officers, firefighters, and other first responders.  These concepts also apply to those who are affected by secondary traumatization such as crime scene investigators, attorneys and others who are in frequent contact with images or information regarding gruesome acts of violence.  Dr.

This webinar will discuss the challenges and opportunities regarding the implementation of the NIBIN program. The NIBIN program has the potential to find links in cases involving firearms that can quickly assist in an investigation.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on January 24, 2019.

This webinar will provide an overview of the field of digital forensics for the laboratory administrator. This is the second webinar in the ASCLD Train the Director Webinar Series.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on January 31, 2019.

The webinar will introduce those laboratory managers with fire debris analysis sections to the nuances of fire debris analysis. This is the third webinar in the ASCLD Train the Director Webinar Series.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on February 7, 2019.
 

This course serves as an overview of the trace evidence discipline for the crime laboratory administration. This is the fourth webinar in the ASCLD Train the Director Webinar Series.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on February 14, 2019.

This course explains transitioning from 17025:2005 to 17025:2017 and the lessons Learned. This is the fifth webinar in the ASCLD Train the Director Webinar Series.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on February 21, 2019.

SWGDAM recently issued recommendations on genotyping results reported as likelihood ratios, designed to promote consistency among laboratories. Members of the committee will discuss the recommendations and their foundations.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on October 18, 22018.

This webinar covered management challenges unique to a digital forensics unit in a laboratory and offer practical solutions to overcome these challenges.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on July 1, 2020.
 

Crime laboratories are exposed to risks each and every day, and it is the job of organizational leaders to balance the severity of a consequence versus the frequency of occurrence, know the laboratory's risk exposure, and proactively mitigate that risk. This webinar will discuss accessing risk exposure, strategic planning, and managing change. Additionally, how to address the stress and anxiety associated with change will be discussed.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on July 26, 2022. 

After the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (Farm Bill) was enacted in December 2018, many states rushed to make changes to their own laws to allow the hemp industry to grow and thrive in their jurisdictions. By removing hemp from the Controlled Substances Act, Cannabis sativa L. plant material with a concentration of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol less than 0.3% on a dry weight basis was no longer considered marijuana.

Legacy workflows in toxicology generally involve a drug class screen followed by a gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS) and liquid chromatography mass spectroscopy (LC/MS-MS) confirmation analysis. Additional techniques could also be used in workflows, but their applications were focused on specific drugs. In general, analyses were serial, limited, and often required multiple methods depending on the number of drug classes in the samples. Results required lengthy and costly workflows, especially when toxicologists were working with complicated samples.

In this webinar we discussed the theory and development of Investigative Genetic Genealogy, including some ethical and legal considerations raised by this technique.  Additionally, we explored the current status of case investigations, the impact on crime laboratories, implementation strategies, and recommendations for jurisdictions considering applying Investigative Genetic Genealogy to their unsolved cases.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on January 23, 2020. 

In this webinar, we will discuss quality and accreditation, how they fit together, and the ASCLD Accreditation Roadmap and Toolkit.  We will also discuss the concepts of organizational transformation, organizational culture, and the cultivation of a quality culture in your laboratory. Lastly, we will review the various quality initiatives in forensics, including ISO TC 272, the Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC) for Forensic Science, and the scientific and technical working groups (SWG/TWG).

This webinar presented the findings of the ASCLD/NIJ collaborative Gap Assessment of Stress, Vicarious Trauma and Resiliency for Forensic Science Professionals. The assessment gathered survey responses from forensic and medical examiner laboratories to evaluate vicarious trauma, burnout, job satisfaction, and participants perceptions of their organization’s resiliency efforts.  Our findings inform future directions in research, policy, and practice to better manage stress and increase resiliency among forensic professionals.

This presentation provided an overview of the activities and programs the Phoenix Police Department’s Crime Lab has implemented and the corresponding impact to the organizational culture and employee morale.

This webinar was presented by the NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence on June 18, 2020.