News

On Tuesday, August 22 through Friday, August 25, 2023, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will be hosting an Advanced Fire Debris Analysis for the Forensic Chemist course.

This course is designed for analysts working in public forensic laboratories with more than three years of experience in conducting fire debris casework. This course will expand upon the topics covered in the ATF’s Introductory Fire Debris Analysis for the Forensic Chemist course, providing additional tools and considerations for fire debris analysis, as well as introducing concepts in fire investigations. The Introductory class is not a prerequisite for the Advanced class.   There is no tuition for the course, but participant’s agency must cover all travel and per diem costs.

If interested, please fill out the attached application and submit to the email listed on the bottom of the application. 

The deadline for application submission is April 1, 2023.

Application form - ATF Advanced Fire Debris Analysis Course 2023.pdf

The American Board of Criminalistics is in the process of developing a new exam, Seized Drugs Analysis. The first step to developing an exam is to create a Job/Task analysis in which experts, like you, get together and talk about how they do their job. We convened this panel at the Clandestine Laboratory Investigating Chemists Association annual conference in September and a panel of your peers developed what is called a DACUM chart outlining your day-to-day tasks. You will find this DACUM chart attached. (See Below)

Now we need your help! As the second step to exam development, we must verify that the information captured in the DACUM accurately reflects the job that you are doing every day.  Please fill out the survey below and tell us if the activities described are important to your job and if so, how frequently you do them. This will ensure that we are developing an exam that will be relevant and reflective of the discipline.

Seized Drugs Analysis Survey

Thank you for your participation!

Seized Drugs Analysis DACUM

Calling all Forensic Biologists! 

As part of the ongoing maintenance of our Biological Evidence Screening and Forensic DNA examinations, the American Board of Criminalistics must periodically review our examination blueprints to ensure that our exams are relevant to the discipline.

Please fill out the survey below and tell us if the activities described are important to your job and if so, how frequently you do them. At the start of the survey you will be given the opportunity to select your area of expertise. You may answer questions related to Biological Evidence Screening, Forensic DNA, or both. Please select the area(s) in which you have technical expertise.

Forensic Biology Survey

Thank you for your participation!

Please see this flyer by the ASCLD Forensic Research Committee.

The latest ABC Newsletter may be found here.