To Certify or Not to Certify: The Issue of Mandatory Accreditation and Certification of Laboratories

According to the National Academy of Sciences 2009 report on improving the quality of forensic science in the United States, all forensic laboratories should be required to be accredited. After the report was issued, The Police Chief magazine called for mandatory accreditation in an article named The Need for Mandatory Accreditation and Certification (2009). Please read Chapters 2, 4, and 5 in the National Academy of Sciences 2009   report as well as the article and answer the following questions: What role does the forensic laboratory play in crime scene investigation? What is the difference between accreditation and certification? What is the role of each (accreditation and certification) in forensic laboratories and crime scene investigation? Based on your research into this issue, do you agree with the NAS (2009) and The Police Chief magazine position on mandatory forensic laboratory accreditation? Why or why not? Be sure to support your position with credible, scholarly evidence. Your initial post should be a minimum of 250 words in length. Support your claims with examples from required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources, and properly cite any references using APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center .