Is it practical?

Continuing the discussion of certification in general, the NAS Report notes the following about certification programs, "The American Bar Association has recommended that certification standards be required of examiners, including “demanding written examinations, proficiency testing, continuing education, recertification procedures, an ethical code, and effective disciplinary procedures.” Let's break these down.

Demanding written exams. What does this mean? Are "written exams" composed of essay questions where one explains topics in depth? Are "written exams" objective tests, like multiple choice exams? What makes an exam "demanding?"

Could an examination body survey the entirety of my written work, books, papers, speeches, this blog, and so on? Could they judge my proficiency based on my written work? I'm not sure. But, pulling from my academic life, it is entirely possible for someone to be proficient in their craft, but be non-verbal. How do you conduct a "demanding written exam" on a non-verbal person? What about differences of language? Do we insist upon all tests being in US English? How do we handle the issue of testing vulnerable populations? Given my extensive work in the autistic community, both academically and professionally, these are relevant questions.

Proficiency testing. Does this belong to an independent certification program or within a vendor's training program? For example, who is a better judge of my proficiency with my chosen tools, Amped Software, Inc. (vendor) or the IAI (third party)? What does the IAI know about FIVE and Authenticate? Nothing, actually. They're still focussed on Photoshop. How do I know this? Their reading list has George Reis' Photoshop book as one of the sources for the test. Whilst still relevant, and quite good, it's a 10 year old treatise on George's favorite PS techniques in no particular order. Given that I no longer use Photoshop in my analytical workflow, how is a test on Photoshop helpful in assessing my proficiency as an examiner?

Perhaps the "requirement" could be met with a review of an analyst's case documentation. Submit a few reports, have the panel examine them in light of the ASTM and SWGDE standards / guidelines.

Continuing education. There comes a point in time, when you've been doing this for a while, that you run out of classes to take. Some, that are available, are cost prohibitive. That's a large part of why I've moved a lot of the classes that I teach to an LMS as micro-learning. As an example, if you can't get in to your local college to take a statistics course, you can take Statistics for Forensic Analysts on-line at an affordable price. Same for redaction, Redaction for Standards Compliance is offered on-line featuring a variety of software platforms.

I've been around the US and Canada quite a bit. I realize that traveling to training is not always an option. I think the internet offers some amazing options to level the playing field as regards continuing education. The question becomes, will your chosen certification program accept your completion certificate from an on-line course or provider?

Recertification procedures. I think the important part here is not only that the individual circle back and re-certify, but that the certification program continually monitors the industry and keeps the certification program up to date. Four years from now, when my AVFA certification is due for renewal, I should not be presented with the same test instrument. Laws and technology change. So too should the certification program. Again, I love George Reis to death, but is his book still relevant in a modern multimedia workflow? Perhaps. But are there other, more appropriate texts? Yes. Absolutely. What about listing Dr. John Russ' Image Processing Cookbook as well, given the preference for Photoshop? Or his Image Processing Handbook, for a more academic look at image processing? If price is an issue, they could choose Fundamentals of Digital Image Processing by Dr. Anil Jain. It's a text book that can be bought used for under $10.

Ethical code. Here's LEVA's Code of Ethics. This post is an example of article 5 in LEVA's COE, offering constructive criticism. Interestingly, article 9 is what prevented me from ever being LEVA certified. Article 9 states, "An Analyst shall maintain the confidentiality of evidence received and work undertaken in accordance with any such request by the submitting agency." It was the policy of the Los Angeles Police Dept. that case work remain confidential and no evidence leave the secure facility without permission. When I sought permission to begin the process of certification, it was flatly denied. Given the LEVA certification methodology, if you can't present one of your cases, you can't get certified. Thus, in honoring their COE, I was prevented from ever being certified whilst in police service. Now, in retirement and in private practice, LEVA discriminates against me for not being a current public service employee by charging confiscatory prices for their offerings.

For the IAI's COE, click here. It begins on pg 79 of the linked document.

Effective disciplinary procedures. One of the things that we do is review opposing counsel's analysis. The examiner on the other side of any case should expect a thorough review of not only their work but their credentials as submitted through the discovery process. I have lost track of the amount of times I have encountered embellishments and fabrication of credentials by analysts, some of which have been certified by LEVA or the IAI. Everything you write in your report should be factual. Everything you write about yourself should be verifiable. As an example of this, I note as a matter of fact that I am retired from police service, having served just shy of 15 years with the Los Angeles Police Dept. under civil service classification 3687. This is a verifiable statement. I can provide the job description for civil service classification 3687, or you can click on the link in the previous sentence. I can provide my retiree ID. I could even print out an account statement from the City's retirement plan noting how many years/months I have of retirement credits (an indication of years/months worked). But, if I simply quit my job, it is a slightly different process than retiring. Thus, I wouldn't say that I had retired, but that I had quit / separated / moved on - or some other term that would accurately describe the end of my time in police service. Same goes for my education. No embellishment, just a simple presentation of the facts.

Back to ethics, there have been a few times that I reported my findings to a certification body. To the best of my knowledge, nothing was ever done with the information that I provided. This is the problem with most professional organizations. We're all friends. No one wants to judge their friends. No waves. No trouble. Let it slide. If there are no consequences, there's no effective discipline.

As these all relate to the certification experience that I just undertook, the AVFA includes all elements except the "proficiency test." I was not given an item of evidence and asked to examine it vs. a question under enquiry. Could my body of work stand in a proficiency test's stead? How much have I written? How many courses of instruction have I designed? How many have I trained to competency? How many cases have I worked? After all, it's this body of work that prepared me to take and pass the exam.

Getting back to the NAS Report, "In essence, ‘certification’ usually means that a particular individual has completed a defined course of education, training, and experience, and has passed an examination prepared by peers which demonstrates that the individual has obtained at least the minimum level of competence required to practice the specific discipline." My education, training, and experience prepared me to take and pass the examination that was prepared by peers, thus demonstrating to the certificate program a minimum level of competence. As to the peers who prepared the exam, I may not know a single one of them, but having a list of names with contact information is a great start.