Cambridge Police Joins Select Group of Agencies to Receive Forensic Inspection Accreditation

The Cambridge Police Department today announced that the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) has accredited the Cambridge Police Department’s Crime Scene Services Latent Unit to ISO/IEC 17020 for forensic inspection. The Cambridge Police Department joins the Massachusetts State Police, Boston Police Department and Worcester Police Department as the only law enforcement agencies in Massachusetts to attain such accreditation.

ISO/IEC 17020 is the international standard for accreditation of bodies performing inspection. The accreditation is based on an assessment of the Unit’s procedures, technical qualifications, and competence for conducting specific inspection activities within the scope of the standard, all with reference to ISO/IEC 17020 requirements.

“This is an achievement that the Crime Scene Services Latent Unit should be very proud of,” said Brent B. Larrabee, Interim Commissioner for the Cambridge Police Department. “The process to become accredited is long and arduous, but the certification demonstrates that the Unit meets or exceeds the international standard requirements and places Cambridge Police at the forefront of forensic inspection.” 

The Cambridge Police Crime Scene Services Unit accreditation applies to the disciplines of latent prints (fingerprints, palmprints and footprints) and biological and trace collection.

The first law enforcement agency in the Americas to become accredited to ISO/IEC 17020 for forensic inspection was the Forensic Science Institute of Puerto Rico in February 2012.

The ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board provides accreditation services under the ANAB, FQS and ACLASS brands.

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The Cambridge Police Department is committed to the enforcement of laws and preservation of order that protect the rights and property of every person within the City of Cambridge. Our mission is to provide the highest quality of police service and to impact crime, and its associated elements, through the utilization of new and proven crime prevention strategies and problem-solving partnerships with our community.  For more information, follow @CambridgePolice on Twitter, or access the department’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CambridgePolice.