NCJ Number
230582
Journal
Forensic Magazine Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Dated: February-March 2010 Pages: 25-30
Date Published
February 2010
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article shares perspectives of three laboratories experiences, both successes and difficulties, encountered during validation of automated systems for DNA.
Abstract
Validation of automated systems is becoming a requirement for DNA laboratories to meet increasing caseloads and database expansions. Validation attempts to ensure that the process works without delaying implementation of new techniques with exhaustive experiments. While every laboratory is going to approach validation in a different way with different goals there are always commonalities. The common ground that these validations share is that the labs asked questions about their processes and goals, identified the scientific questions the validation needed to answer, and performed the experiments necessary to verify that the process consistently led to the expected results. Although every validation is different, these perspectives offer ideas for laboratories seeking to develop their own individual validation plan. Data were used from the New York State Police Forensic Investigation Center, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation CODIS Unit, and the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory System.