The Seattle Police Department’s Latent Print Unit has received international certification, one of only a handful of law enforcement agencies in the state to achieve the distinction.
The Seattle Police Department’s Latent Print Unit gathers to celebrate their recent Accredidation. Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole presents the Chief’s Award to the Unit for their accomplishment.
The unit, which specializes in identifying prints that are invisible to the naked eye, went through a grueling three-year effort to meet 22-pages of requirements set forth under the ISO/IEC 17020 international standards.
Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole on Tuesday presented the Chief’s Award to the Unit for their accomplishment.
The Latent Print Unit went through a two-day inspection by Forensic Quality Services staff last month to prove they met requirements dealing with laboratory processing, latent print comparisons, and fingerprint database entry among others.
The National Academy of Sciences has recommended that all forensic labs be accredited to show that they’re in compliance with the international standards and are technically competent.