American Academy of Forensic Sciences

For over fifty years the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) has served a distinguished and diverse membership. With more than 5,000 members, the AAFS consists of ten sections representing a wide range of forensic specialties. The members are physicians, attorneys, dentists, toxicologists, physical anthropologists, document examiners, psychiatrists, engineers, criminalists, educators, and others who practice, study, and perform research in the forensic sciences. They represent all 50 United States, Canada, and 50 other countries worldwide.

As a professional society dedicated to the application of science to the law, the AAFS is committed to the promotion of education and the elevation of accuracy, precision, and specificity in the forensic sciences. It does so via the Journal of Forensic Sciences (its internationally recognized scientific journal), newsletters, its annual scientific meeting, the conduct of seminars and meetings, and the initiation of actions and reactions to various issues of concern. As the world’s most prestigious forensic science organization, the AAFS represents its members to the public and serves as the focal point for public information concerning the forensic science profession.

The AAFS’ annual scientific meeting is held in February at which time over 500 scientific papers, breakfast seminars, workshops, and other special events are presented. Professionals gather to present the most current information, research, and updates in this expanding field.

American Board of Forensic Anthropology, Inc.

The unequivocal need to identify forensic scientists qualified to provide essential professional services for the nation's judicial and executive branches of government has long been recognized. In response to this professional mandate, the American Board of Forensic Anthropology was organized in 1977 to provide, in the interest of the public and the advancement of the science, a program of certification in forensic anthropology. In purpose, function, and organization, the ABFA is thus analogous to the certifying boards in various medical specialities and scientific fields.

The objectives of the Board are: (a) to encourage the study of, improve the practice of, establish and enhance standards for, and advance the science of forensic anthropology; (b) to encourage and promote adherence to high standards of ethics, conduct, and professional practice in forensic anthropology; (c) to grant and issue certificates, and/or other recognition, in cognizance of special qualification in forensic anthropology to voluntary applicants who conform to the standards established by the Board and who have established their fitness and competence thereof; (d) to inform the appropriate branches of federal and state governments and private agencies of the existence and nature of the ABFA and the professional quality of its Diplomates for the practice of forensic anthropology; (e) to maintain and furnish lists of individuals who have been granted certificates by the Board. In this way the ABFA aims to make available to the judicial system, and others, a practical and equitable system for readily identifiying those persons professing to be specialists in forensic anthropology who possess the requisite qualifications and competence.

Certification is based upon the candidate's personal and professional record of education and training, experience, and achievement, as well as on results of formal examinations.

Armed Forces Institute of Pathology

AFIP provides pathology expertise to the U.S. military and civilians around the world through excellence in diagnostic consultation, education and research. With a combined staff of more than 800 military, federal civilian, and contract employees, the Institute is an international resource in the field of diagnostic pathology in medicine, dentistry and the veterinary sciences. It is the reference center in pathology for the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

AFIP's Center for Advanced Pathology, the virtual "heart" of the Institute, comprises 27 departments and six groups. It includes 238 professional, 123 administrative and 216 technical staff members. In 1998, AFIP consulted on 103,518 cases for 92,225 patients. In 71% of the consultations received, our staff initiated or modified the diagnosis - leading to direct changes in patient treatment. The pathology departments are built around specific organ expertise with several noted exceptions - Medical Examiner's Office, Pediatric Pathology, Veterinary Pathology, Environmental & Toxicologic Pathology, Geographic and Infectious Disease Pathology, Cellular Pathology, Center for Clinical and Laboratory Genetics and Legal Medicine.

In education, our staff is devoted to teaching the worldwide medical community about emerging disease entities, tumor diagnosis, environmental pathology and toxicology, gaining basic and molecular insight into known diseases, and giving hands-on or telepathologic experience in diagnosing difficult diseases in surgical pathology. The AFIP offers over 30,000 hours of CME annually with plans to greatly expand its distance learning module.

In research and development, AFIP experts examine or develop new technologies and methodologies to deliver the best possible patient care in diagnostic pathology. In 1998, our staff developed 37 new immunostains, 14 new DNA/RNA tests, and 11 new toxicologic assays. A considerable amount of the approved research is in collaboration with other healthcare entities in government, academia and industry.

In 1998, AFIP supported health of active duty service members and their families at home and abroad by deploying pathology experts or resources 161 times. U.S. military treatment facilities (MTF) received 12,109 of our 52,337 second opinions (all difficult cases), and all 40,100 primary cytology examinations, which included a large portion of active-duty women, supporting Air Force MTF's. AFIP experts are also actively involved in developing vaccines to prevent bioterrorism threats and to eradicate AIDS.

AFIP's National Museum of Health and Medicine - the "soul" of the Institute - and the successor to the founding Army Medical Museum is dedicated to preserving, collecting, and interpreting the objects, specimens, photographs, and documents chronicling the history and practice of medicine over the centuries. Its interactive exhibits and historical collections document the history and changes in military and civilian medicine in the United States.

Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Teams

In the early 1980’s, a committee was formed within the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) to address disaster situations and specifically, mass fatality incidents. This group found that no standardization then existed and worked toward creating a national protocol for the formation of a proper response. Initially, they were concentrating on just the role of funeral directors, but it was soon discovered that funeral directors and no one profession could handle all of the aspects of such an event. A multi-faceted nonprofit organization open to all forensic practitioners was formed by the committee to support the idea of a national level response protocol for all related professions. This group formed and purchased the first portable morgue unit in the country and their equipment has supported DMORT missions in Illinois, Indiana, Guam, Michigan and Del Rio.

Soon after this non profit group of volunteers had formed, government interest in this topic came to the forefront. Families who had lost loved ones in airline incidents felt that the treatment that they had received was inadequate and demanded a response from congress. As a result, Congress passed The Family Assistance Act in October of 1996 and required all American based airlines (and later all those operating in the US) to have a plan to assist families in the case of an accident. DMORT is one federal team which can be called in to help if needed.

DMORT has grown from its humble beginnings in the early 1990’s to the current group of over 1200 trained and capable volunteers who respond at a moments notice to assist those in need.

Why do we have DMORT? To assist local authorities during a: Mass Fatality Incident, defined as an incident where more deaths occur than can be handled by local resources. DMORT is a federal agency that responds ONLY when requested. DMORT may be requested by any municipality in need by going through the departmental procedures for requesting federal assistance.

FBI Laboratories Evidence Response

The Evidence Response Team Unit supervises and coordinates Evidence Response Teams (ERTs) throughout the FBI. ERTs are groups of well-trained and well-equipped Special Agent and support personnel who specialize in organizing and conducting major evidence recovery operations in which the FBI has jurisdiction.

These personnel respond to case investigations with the most current techniques, procedures, and equipment to ensure that critical evidence is identified and gathered for forensic analysis. Each ERT typically consists of a team leader and seven members, all of whom have designated responsibilities, including those of team leader, photographer, sketch preparer, evidence log recorder, evidence custodian, evidence collector/processor, and specialists such as bomb technicians and forensic anthropologists. ERTs are structured primarily for FBI casework but can also provide forensic support to other agencies when authorized.

In overseeing the ERT program, the Unit assists FBI field offices in the formation, operation, training, logistical support, and budgeting of ERTs. The Unit also researches equipment and techniques to ensure that ERTs are conducting searches and investigations safely and efficiently.

The Unit provides basic and advanced training for field office ERTs to establish the evidence-recovery capabilities of each team. Emphasis is placed on procedural instructions for evidence collection, evidence preservation, crime scene investigation, and search warrant executions with an end in the standardization of ERT protocols. Basic training covers photography, latent fingerprints, crime scene management and documentation, and evidence recovery. The Unit also sponsors advanced in-service training as well as specialized field training, both of which provide ERTs with detailed information in specific areas of evidence collection and preservation. Annual conferences are held to provide a forum for relevant issues and to obtain input from ERTs regarding policies and procedures.

The Unit is the Laboratory representative to the Critical Incident Response Group. In this capacity Unit personnel respond with this Group to crisis situations and coordinate the mobilization of field office ERTs in these instances.

During 1999, the ERTs provided operational response in more than 2,000 incidents—an increase of 100 percent from 1998. Specialized ERT facility space was established in five FBI field divisions, including Washington, DC, Boston, El Paso, New Orleans, and Anchorage, and an additional nine divisions will be provided specialized space during 2000.

Federal Emergency Management Agency

The Federal Emergency Management Agency - an independent agency reporting to the President and tasked with responding to, planning for, recovering from and mitigating against disaster - can trace its beginnings to the Congressional Act of 1803. This act, generally considered the first piece of disaster legislation, provided assistance to a New Hampshire town following an extensive fire. In the century that followed, ad hoc legislation was passed more than 100 times in response to hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters.

By the 1930s, when the federal approach to problems became popular, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation was given authority to make disaster loans for repair and reconstruction of certain public facilities following an earthquake, and later, other types of disasters. In 1934, the Bureau of Public Roads was given authority to provide funding for highways and bridges damaged by natural disasters. The Flood Control Act, which gave the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers greater authority to implement flood control projects, was also passed. This piecemeal approach to disaster assistance was problematic and it prompted legislation that required greater cooperation between federal agencies and authorized the President to coordinate these activities.

The 1960s and early 1970s brought massive disasters requiring major federal response and recovery operations by the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration, established within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Hurricane Carla struck in 1962, Hurricane Betsy in 1965, Hurricane Camille in 1969 and Hurricane Agnes in 1972. The Alaskan Earthquake hit in 1964 and the San Fernando Earthquake rocked Southern California in 1971. These events served to focus attention on the issue of natural disasters and brought about increased legislation. In 1968, the National Flood Insurance Act offered new flood protection to homeowners, and in 1974 the Disaster Relief Act firmly established the process of Presidential disaster declarations.

However, emergency and disaster activities were still fragmented. When hazards associated with nuclear power plants and the transportation of hazardous substances were added to natural disasters, more than 100 federal agencies were involved in some aspect of disasters, hazards and emergencies. Many parallel programs and policies existed at the state and local level, compounding the complexity of federal disaster relief efforts. The National Governor's Association sought to decrease the many agencies with whom state and local governments were forced work. They asked President Jimmy Carter to centralize federal emergency functions.

President Carter's 1979 executive order merged many of the separate disaster-related responsibilities into a new Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Among other agencies, FEMA absorbed: the Federal Insurance Administration, the National Fire Prevention and Control Administration, the National Weather Service Community Preparedness Program, the Federal Preparedness Agency of the General Services Administration and the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration activities from HUD. Civil defense responsibilities were also transferred to the new agency from the Defense Department's Defense Civil Preparedness Agency.

John Macy was named as FEMA's first director. Macy emphasized the similarities between natural hazards preparedness and the civil defense activities. FEMA began development of an Integrated Emergency Management System with an all-hazards approach that included "direction, control and warning systems which are common to the full range of emergencies from small isolated events to the ultimate emergency - war."

The new agency was faced with many unusual challenges in its first few years that emphasized how complex emergency management can be. Early disasters and emergencies included the contamination of Love Canal, the Cuban refugee crisis and the accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. Later, the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992 focused major national attention on FEMA. In 1993, President Clinton nominated James L. Witt as the new FEMA director. Witt became the first agency director with experience as a state emergency manager. He initiated sweeping reforms that streamlined disaster relief and recovery operations, insisted on a new emphasis regarding preparedness and mitigation, and focused agency employees on customer service. The end of the Cold War also allowed Witt to redirect more of FEMA's limited resources from civil defense into disaster relief, recovery and mitigation programs.

In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed Joe M. Allbaugh as the director of FEMA. Within months, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11th focused the agency on issues of national preparedness and homeland security, and tested the agency in unprecedented ways. The agency coordinated its activities with the newly formed Office of Homeland Security, and FEMA's Office of National Preparedness was given responsibility for helping to ensure that the nation's first responders were trained and equipped to deal with weapons of mass destruction.

Billions of dollars of new funding were directed to FEMA to help communities face the threat of terrorism. Just a few years past its 20th anniversary, FEMA was actively directing its "all-hazards" approach to disasters toward homeland security issues.

Today, FEMA - a 2,500-person agency supplemented by more than 5,000 stand-by disaster reservists - has a mission to lead America to prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from disasters with a vision of "A Nation Prepared." At no time in its history has this vision been more important to the country than in the aftermath of Sept. 11th.

Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command

The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), located on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, was activated on Oct. 1, 2003. JPAC's mission is to achieve the fullest possible accounting of all Americans missing as a result of our nation's previous conflicts. Our highest priority is the return of any living Americans that remain prisoners of war.
 

JPAC was created from the merger of the 30 year old U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii, and the 11 year old Joint Task Force - Full Accounting. This 425-person organization, commanded by a flag officer, is committed and dedicated to bringing home the nation's service members and civilians who made the ultimate sacrifice.
 

JPAC recognizes that the efforts and involvement of our POW/MIA families contribute significantly to our success. JPAC owes a great deal of gratitude to the families and veterans who support our mission.
 

We are a jointly manned unit with handpicked Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines with specialized skills and Department of the Navy civilians who make up about 25 percent of the organization. The laboratory portion of JPAC, referred to as the Central Identification Laboratory (CIL), is the largest forensic anthropology laboratory in the world.
 

Our mission is daunting, with approximately 78,000 Americans missing from World War II (of those, an estimated 35,000 are deemed recoverable, with the others lost at sea or entombed in sunken vessels), 8,100 missing from the Korean War, 1,800 missing from the Vietnam War, 120 missing from the Cold War, and one serviceman missing from the Gulf War.
 

Quebec Laboratoire de sciences judiciaires et de medicine legale

The Laboratoire de sciences judiciaires et de médecine légale, founded in 1914, was the first facility of its kind in North America. Today, with a staff of 125 highly qualified employees, its unique expertise and modern technology, it ranks among the most eminent in the western world.

From the outset, its mission has always been to serve the cause of justice with impartiality and, through rigorous scientific expertise, support police or legal investigations. When the Laboratory was founded, basic knowledge in forensic medicine, chemistry and physics was put to use to develop scientific proof. Over time, these disciplines became more sophisticated and new specialties were developed: biology, toxicology, physical and organic chemistry, expertise in ballistics and counterfeiting. More recently, genetics, electronic and computer engineering, odontology and anthropology have augmented the arsenal of forensic science.

Regardless of the field concerned, scientific evidence provided by independent experts of acknowledged authority is playing an increasingly important part of the administration of justice. This global trend is irreversible and is one of the main reasons why the Laboratory's management wants to offer its services to Quebec institutions and the public.

In October 1996, the Laboratory became the first independent service unit of the ministère de la Sécurité publique. While continuing to pursue its traditional mission, the new status makes the Laboratory accessible to a broader clientele. The Laboratory's major clients remain the courts, coroners, police forces, and certain agencies and ministries of the Quebec Government. However, the Laboratory now offers its services, for consideration, to the private and para-public sectors, viewing this new direction as a unique opportunity to finance its scientific and technological developments.

The Laboratory tailors its services for insurance companies, security and investigation agencies, legal firms and their clients, physicians and educational institutions.

RCMP National Police Services Council

The National Police Services Council was created by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in response to the need to reflect the priorities of Canadian communities. As well, this initiative responds to a recommendation contained in the April 2000 Auditor General’s Report. The Council is comprised of distinguished Canadians, each recognized for his or her significant contribution to furthering the public interest. It serves as an integrating influence for the various components and service lines of the National Police Services, to help ensure stakeholders continue to provide high-quality, seamless service. The Council provides National Police Services with the input of external expertise and stakeholder involvement to help to provide superior support services to law enforcement and justice communities. The Council helps ensure transparency and accountability of the National Police Services programs.

National Police Services Advisory Council Mandate:

To offer expert strategic advice on the activities of National Police Services, and provide a corporate vision that helps contribute towards the fulfillment of its public safety mandate.

The National Police Services Advisory Council reports to and provides strategic-level advice through the Chief National Police Services to the Commissioner of the RCMP, to further the mission of the National Police Services. This mission is focussed on “supporting the national policing community with data, knowledge and tools, to contribute to public safety”. This group is not a public or legislated body, but serves to offer strategic advice on the National Police Services’ various activities.

The Advisory Council will help position National Police Services as an innovative RCMP business line that works proactively to effectively serve the needs of its clients.