The Washington State Patrol (WSP) received word today that the breath alcohol program in its Toxicology Lab Division has received international
accreditation from the American Society of Crime Lab Directors/Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD/LAB.)
The agency’s breath alcohol program installs, maintains and verifies the accuracy of breath test instruments for all police agencies in the state. WSP’s lab is only the fourth anywhere to achieve this type of accreditation.
“I’ll take fourth in the world any day,” said WSP Chief John R. Batiste. “I could not be more proud of the people who made this happen.”
The patrol sought accreditation as part of an effort to restore the use of breath test results by local courts. Following ethical lapses by a former
manager, some courts had declined to allow breath test results.
“As with most situations that challenge an organization, we are now better for the experience,” Batiste said. “We firmly believe that prosecutors, judges and jurors can rely on results they get from this lab.”
Evaluators from the ASCLD/LAB spent months pouring over documentation and a full week actually in the lab observing work. They determined that the lab’s policies, procedures and practices meet International Organization for Standardization (ISO) requirements for toxicology lab operations.
Batiste praised the leadership of State Toxicologist Dr. Fiona Couper, who in turn passed the kudos directly to those who work in the lab.
“When I arrived I found a group of highly competent and ethical employees dedicated to accurate scientific results,” Couper said. “I’m proud they earned this accreditation, but I’m frankly not surprised. From my first moment here I knew I was working with committed individuals.”
Couper noted that ASCLD/LAB-International accreditation is about more than just the science. Evaluators looked at how the lab receives, stores and tracks the handling of evidence and overall quality and management operations.
“It’s important to note that we found the problems in this lab ourselves, and we fixed them,” Chief Batiste said. “We then sought this outside, international accreditation to verify that our corrective actions were adequate.”
The patrol will now present evidence of accreditation to prosecutors in those jurisdictions where courts have declined to allow breath test results. If prosecutors agree that accreditation is new information for judges to consider, they could begin asking to introduce breath test results at any time.
