Quality in the criminalistics service of the Guardia Civil

The Criminalistic Service was one of the first Units selected by the Spanish Civil Guard for the initial implementation of quality regulation in the Institution. This and the consolidation of the DNA laboratory happened at the same time, and that is why the tests made by this new criminalistic discipline were selected to be accredited as a first aim. The accreditation was achieved in 2003, being the first one of its kind in Spain. Since then, the Criminalistics Service has achieved accreditation for 50% of its expert areas, in which grants it a leading position in that matter among equivalent Spanish laboratories. Besides, the Criminalistics Service leads the Working Group number 3 of the National Technical Committee number 197, which monitors the works of the Euro- pean Committee for Normalization number 419 on “Forensic science processes”. This Committee is currently developing the first European forensic guidelines in history. The Criminalistics Service represents AENOR in the above-mentioned Committee.