The Charleston Police Department remains the first and only law enforcement agency in the state to receive national accreditation for a computer crime fighting tool. Not only that, they are the only local and state law enforcement agency in the world to receive international accreditation by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors, known as ASCLAD Lab, for a Digital Evidence Unit. This cybercrime tool helps investigators solve cases, such as child pornography and white-collar crimes like forgery and fraud.
Director of the Digital Evidence Unit, Jerry Roberts says this accreditation is an honorable one for the department and the state. “The accreditation means that we have a quality assurance program from start to end that oversees how we conduct business, how we validate and test our instruments, and to insure that are results are able to be verified, validated and reproducible–that’s the big thing–and we follow a very rigid quality assurance plan based on the ISO standards to ensure that that happens,” says Roberts.
Roberts says ASCLAD Lab accredits forensic laboratories in two broad areas: forensic science collaboration and forensic science testing. The accreditation involves an annual on-site surveillance visit that searches specifics of the department in facilities, management, and personnel. The only other law enforcement agencies in the world accredited are the FBI’s lab in Quantico and the DEA’s Ice Unit in Virginia.