Farrell C. Shiver was the first
Chairman of the Scientific Working Group for Forensic Document
Examination (SWGDOC) Subcommittee on on Standard Operating
Procedures and Terminology. The subcommittee was primarily
responsible for developing standardized procedures for
handwriting examinations. He also served on the Executive
Committee of SWGDOC.
The Scientific Working Group for
Forensic Document Examination was formed in 1997 under the
sponsorship of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to promote
standardization in procedures used in government laboratories.
Initial membership in SWGDOC included representative forensic
document examiners from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the
United States Secret Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
and Firearms, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the
Internal Revenue Service, the Immigration and Naturalization
Service, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, the U.S.
Navy Criminal Investigation Service, as well representatives of
the National Institute of Justice, and academia.
Membership was later expanded to include forensic document
examiners from various state, local, and private laboratories.
Today SWGDOC continues to develop
standards under the auspices of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation as a task group of the ASTM.