OSAC website: http://www.nist.gov/forensics/osac/

Feature Article: 

OSAC is Recruiting Applicants for New 

Crime Scene Subcommittee

Page 1

The Biology/DNA SAC Provides Public 

Updates and Solicits Input at the 2015 

International Symposium on Human 

Identifcation Meeting

Page 2

Standards/Guidelines Currently Under 

Consideration for OSAC Registry

Upcoming OSAC Meetings

Page 3

OSAC Working with an SDO Process 

Released, Facilitating Broader 

Movement on the Majority 

of OSAC Projects

Page 4

Newsletter

Organization of Scientifc Area Committees 

for Forensic Science

November 2015 | Vol. 1, Issue 4

Inside this issue Feature Article: 

OSAC is Recruiting Applicants for New Crime 

Scene Subcommittee and Other Vacancies

The OSAC is currently recruiting applicants for a new subcommittee, the Crime Scene 

Investigation Subcommittee.

The Crime Scene Investigation Subcommittee will focus on the standards and guidelines related 

to the investigation of crime scenes including the search for, documentation of, collection of, 

and preservation of evidence associated with a crime scene. The Subcommittee will report to 

the Crime Scene/Death Investigation 

Scientifc Area Committee. 

Prospective members should complete 

the OSAC Application Form. Existing 

OSAC applicants or members who 

would like to be considered for this 

Subcommittee should email forensics@

nist.gov. 

The initial application period will be 

open until November 30, 2015 and all 

non-selected applicants will remain in 

the application pool and be eligible to 

fll future membership vacancies and 

to serve as an affliate on OSAC Task 

Groups.

A vacancy also opened on the 

Chemistry SAC, and the Footwear and 

Tire Subcommittee has noted a need 

for additional applicants to fll member 

and affliate positions. Prospective 

members should complete the OSAC 

Application Form.
2

The Biology/DNA SAC Provides Public Updates and Solicits Input at the 2015 

International Symposium on Human Identifcation (ISHI) Meeting

The annual International Symposium on 

Human Identifcation (ISHI) conference is 

specifcally focused on DNA applications 

in forensic settings. Organizers of the 

26th Annual ISHI conference indicated 

that it was one of the most well-attended 

conferences they’ve hosted to date. 

The conference began with an 

evocative key-note presentation by Kirk 

Bloodsworth, a death row inmate who 

was exonerated by post-conviction DNA 

testing. Kirk concluded his presentation 

calling for forensic science practitioners 

to acknowledge their “phenomenal 

responsibilities” and called for 

practitioners to “do the tests right” and 

with integrity.

On October 14, 2015, Dr. George 

Herrin, who is the Deputy Director of 

the Georgia Bureau of InvestigationDivision of Forensic Sciences, and also 

the chair of the Biology/DNA Scientifc 

Area Committee (SAC), provided an 

update which included a snapshot of the 

SAC’s intended standards and guidelines 

that they hope will help practitioners to 

perform these responsibilities in that 

vein. The Biology/DNA SAC is working on 

approximately 51 standard and guideline 

projects, in various stages of completion. 

During a morning workshop on 

October 15, 2015, the Biology/DNA 

SAC Subcommittee chairs hosted a 

public Question and Answer (Q&A) 

Session. Each chair frst provided 

an update on the subcommittee’s 

priorities, and then solicited any 

comments or questions. Kim Murga, 

of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police 

Department, and chair of the Biological 

Methods Subcommittee reported that 

the subcommittee is focusing on on 

establishing standards and guidelines 

that support molecular and biochemical 

methods used to analyze evidence and 

reference items. This encompasses 

everything from serology through loading 

samples on a genetic analyzer. This 

subcommittee does not cover anything 

related to interpretation (serology 

interpretation or DNA interpretation). 

Robyn Ragsdale, Ph.D., of FDLE, provided 

the Biological Data Interpretation and 

Reporting Subcommittee update, and 

noted they will focus on standards and 

guidelines related to scientifcally valid 

methods of interpretation, statistical 

analysis and reporting of biological results.

Katherine Moore, Wildlife subcommittee 

chair, who also works with the U.S. 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration, Northwest Fisheries 

Science Center Forensic Laboratory, 

reported that the Wildlife Forensics 

Subcommittee will focus on standards 

and guidelines related to taxonomic 

identifcation, individualization, and 

geographic origin of non-human 

biological evidence based on 

morphological and genetic analyses. 

She noted there is approximately 

$53 billion of illegal activity that is of 

interest to this stakeholder group. 

In addition to the public engagement, 

the OSAC also held a series of internal 

meetings. These meetings focused 

on facilitating related standard and 

guideline projects through OSAC 

processes. 

SAC members stand during Q&A session so that attendees can approach them for questions after the meeting

Robyn Ragsdale, Ph.D., discusses key challenges identifed by the Biological Methods Subcommittee
3

Standards/Guidelines Currently Under Consideration for OSAC Registry

The Organization of Scientifc Area Committees for Forensic Science (OSAC) Materials (Trace) Subcommittee, Seized 

Drugs Subcommittee, and Fire Debris and Explosives Subcommittee are in the process of reviewing and adjudicating 

public comments regarding potential inclusion of the following fve standards to the OSAC Registry of Approved 

Standards:

ASTM: E2329-14 Standard Practice for 

Identifcation of Seized Drugs

ASTM: E2330-12 Standard Test 

Method for Determination of 

Concentrations of Elements in Glass 

Samples Using Inductively Coupled 

Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) for 

Forensic Comparisons

ASTM: E2548-11e1 Standard Guide for 

Sampling Seized Drugs for Qualitative 

and Quantitative Analysis

ASTM: E2881 - 13e1 Standard 

Test Method for Extraction and 

Derivatization of Vegetable Oils and Fats 

from Fire Debris and Liquid Samples 

with Analysis by Gas ChromatographyMass Spectrometry

ASTM: E2926-13 Standard Test 

Method for Forensic Comparison of 

Glass Using Micro X-ray Fluorescence 

(μ-XRF) Spectrometry

Following subcommittee comment 

adjudication and deliberation, the 

Chemistry/Instrumental Analysis 

Scientifc Area Committee (the SAC, 

which is the unit that oversees those 

subcommittees) and the Forensic 

Science Standards Board (FSSB) will 

further deliberate on whether to post the 

standards to the registry. 

 Please contact forensics@nist.gov with 

any questions or feedback. 

Upcoming OSAC Meetings

• (Internal OSAC Meeting) Forensic Science Standards Board (FSSB) at DEA Special Testing Laboratory 

in Sterling, VA on December 3-4, 2015 

• (Internal OSAC Meeting) Full OSAC Subcommittee Meeting in Leesburg, VA on January 25-29, 2016 

• (Open to the Public) OSAC public reporting occurs at American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS) in

Las Vegas, NV on February 22-23, 2016. (5 SAC Chairs & 24 subcommittee chairs or their designee will

present)
OSAC “Working with an SDO Process” Released, Facilitating 

Broader Movement on the Majority of OSAC Projects 

As tallied from the 2015 Priority Action Reports published by the Organization of Scientifc Area Committees for Forensic 

Science (OSAC) subcommittees, the OSAC is working on at least 364 individual standards projects. The OSAC units 

are working to design these projects with OSAC’s mission in mind—which is to develop and promote technically sound, 

consensus-based documentary standards and guidelines for widespread adoption throughout the forensic science 

community.

The OSAC is working on at least 364 

individual standards projects. 

4

Although the promotion of existing 

published standards and guidelines 

is only a small portion of the 364 

standards projects in the OSAC queue, 

to date, subcommittees have had to 

primarily focus on promoting existing 

published standards as written (which in 

some cases required a tradeoff analysis 

of perfection versus timeliness) for 

consideration for the OSAC Standards/

Guidelines Registry Approval Process. 

Five standards are currently under 

consideration, however it is expected 

that that number will double or triple in 

the coming months. (It is unknown how 

many of these submissions will ultimately 

be placed on the registries as reviews 

are still pending). Subcommittees have 

also been corresponding with a number 

of Standards Developing Organizations 

(SDOs) to make changes to a number 

of existing published standards. If the 

implemented changes are agreeable to 

the subcommittees, they will submit the 

new versions through the OSAC Registry 

Approval process. 

The majority of OSAC projects consist 

of documents or work items that have 

not yet been published by an SDO or 

consensus body, but are ready for next 

steps. Recently, the Forensic Science 

Standards Board (FSSB) issued a 

nuanced map for the OSAC—the OSAC 

Working with an SDO Process—to help 

subcommittees initiate the next step 

for these projects. This release formally 

incentivizes the subcommittees to 

introduce draft standards (or even initial 

concepts) to SDOs, and outlines the 

steps that should help facilitate this 

activity. The FSSB is hopeful that this 

will allow units to meet a new, important 

OSAC milestone—the introduction of a 

new or revised forensic science work 

item to an SDO, who will then see it 

through to its fnal ballot approval and 

publication. 

This newly published process is not 

without some potential challenges. Some 

subcommittees are concerned that some 

documents or concepts might “lose 

their way” in an SDO and the published 

output might not look at all like what the 

OSAC originally envisioned. Dr. George 

Herrin, who is the Deputy Director of 

the Georgia Bureau of InvestigationDivision of Forensic Sciences, and also 

the chair of the Biology/DNA SAC is 

encouraging DNA Technical Leaders to 

apply to the OSAC to participate as OSAC 

affliates in a DNA Technical Leader 

task group so that the community will 

have expanded opportunities to provide 

feedback on documents before they 

are sent to the SDO. This should help 

mitigate the potential for major changes 

in documents within the SDO process. 

Focus will also be placed on having OSAC 

representatives collaboratively work with 

and participate in SDO working groups. 

Another potential benefcial outcome 

of this process is that the end-product 

will remain close to the OSAC’s original 

vision but will also have incorporated 

improvements introduced by additional 

stakeholders. Subcommittees are hoping 

for this outcome, as well as for prompt 

publishing, so that standards/guidelines 

can quickly be submitted for approval to 

the OSAC registry. 

Now that the OSAC Working with an 

SDO Process is complete, the Quality 

Infrastructure Committee (QIC) has 

turned its focus to the development 

of the OSAC Canvass Process, which 

will be another avenue for publishing 

documents for the OSAC subcommittees. 

The anticipated timeframe for release of 

this process is early 2016.

Continued feedback on this 

and other processes will be 

critical to OSAC’s mission 

achievement. Please contact 

forensics@nist.gov with any 

feedback or program questions.