Article 1-2020 ASCLD Forensic Laboratory Accreditation

Phil Pulaski has 37 years of law enforcement experience including more than 33 years with the New York City Police Department (NYPD), and has been an attorney for 39 years. Phil Pulaski has a strong background in science. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering and Master’s Degree in Environmental Engineering from Manhattan College, Bronx NY. He subsequently worked as an engineer for the United States Environmental Protection Agency for more than 4 years while he also attended Saint John’s University Law School at night. 

As Commanding Officer of the NYPD’s Forensic Investigations Division, NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner of Operations and ultimately as NYPD’s Chief of Detectives, Phil Pulaski significantly re-engineered the operations of the NYPD Police Laboratory, Crime Scene Unit, Latent Print Section, Bomb Squad, Computer Crimes Squad and DNA Liaison Unit. Together with the Director of the NYPD’s Police Laboratory, Phil Pulaski was responsible for ensuring the NYPD’s Police Laboratory was accredited twice under the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB) “International Program” and once under the “Legacy Program”. This remarkable achievement was the direct result of the extraordinary professionalism and outstanding dedication of the hard-working NYPD forensic scientists.

ASCLD was established in the fall of 1974. At approximately the same time, a study was undertaken to identify the challenges facing forensic laboratories with a focus on quality control and quality assurance. The multi-year study revealed substantial deficiencies in forensic laboratory quality programs, and ASCLD created the Laboratory Accreditation Board (LAB) in the summer of 1981 to address this problem. ASCLD/LAB eventually incorporated as a non-profit corporation during 1988. By 1992, the organization had accredited 128 laboratories, including its first international laboratory, located in Adelaide, Australia. 

During April 2016, a significant change occurred in the forensic science community when the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) signed an affiliation agreement with ASCLD/LAB thereby merging ASCLD/LAB into ANAB. However, ASCLD supports forensic laboratories seeking ANAB accreditation by sponsoring an accreditation initiative entitled “Imagine Accreditation Tomorrow”. ANAB uses the International Standards Organization (ISO) 17025 and 17020 accreditation standards. After a laboratory is accredited, ANAB uses its Annual Accreditation Audit Report, proficiency testing reports, and laboratory visits to monitor a forensic laboratory’s compliance with the accreditation standards.