Past Programs

 
 

Fire Debris Validation Kit

Through a Cooperative Agreement with the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the NFSTC is working with the Technical Working Group for Fire and Explosions (TWGFEX) and the National Center for Forensic Science (NCFS) in Orlando, FL to produce a set of instructions and flammable liquids for use by a laboratory in the validation/verification of fire debris analysis procedures.

The kit is not intended to be comprehensive or to address all available procedures, but rather focuses on those based on selected ASTM consensus methods.

Validation Kit Components

  • Instructional CD-ROM containing a master Activity Table, from which activities, worksheets, and references are linked, including:
    • Initial Activity: designed to explore the basic requirements of quality assurance documentation necessary for conducting forensic analysis of ignitable liquids
    • Instrumentation Activities: performed to validate/verify the laboratory analytical instrumentation namely, the gas chromatograph and/or the gas chromatograph – mass spectrometer
    • Recovery Activities: performed to validate/verify the various methods of collection of liquid ignitable residues from fire debris
    • Figure Reference Document: accessed for links to examples of instrumentation activity results presented in two file formats: Excel Worksheet and DATA.
  • Twenty (20) different reference materials
  • Ampules of standard mixtures
  • Cans containing complex matrix sample
  • Packet of certificates of analysis

Shipment of the Validation Kits to public crime laboratories performing fire debris analysis began in early January 2006.

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Drug Academy and DNA Academies I, II, III

  • Conducted at the NFSTC facility, Academies typically run for 16 weeks and provide intensive programs of study for new recruits to sections of operational crime laboratories.
  • NFSTC has designed and presented Drug Chemistry and DNA Analysis Academy curriculums.
  • Funded through the NIJ Cooperative Agreement
  • Provided DNA training through distance learning, on-site lectures and hands-on laboratory practicum to a combined total of 20 students in DNA Academies I and II.
  • Academy III trained 13 forensic scientists from the Illinois State Police (ISP)
  • Developed an infrastructure partnership with ISP funding the direct cost of delivery
  • Past academy students
  • Stakeholder Feedback
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Gunsights™ (Versions 2.0 and 3.0 Pro)

  • Distributed to over 350 crime laboratories

  • Produced by Forensic Technology, Inc. in Largo , FL, the software provides detailed information and high-resolution photographs on more than 2,700 current and historic firearm models

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Quality Samples

  • Provided a series of Quality Samples to publicly funded U.S. crime laboratories
  • Consisted of sample materials designed, constructed, rigorously tested, and delivered to forensic scientists with a certificate of analysis
  • Suitable for use for any of the following purposes:

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  • Used as part of each laboratory’s quality assurance program

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