Farrell C. Shiver is a former
Chief of the Questioned Documents Division (now known as the
Forensic Documents Section) of the U.S. Army
Criminal Investigation Laboratory (USACIL), Fort Gillem, Georgia. He is also a graduate of USACIL's two-year resident course of instruction in Forensic
Document Examination. Mr. Shiver was assigned to the
Questioned Documents Division from 1989 until his retirement
from the U.S. Army in 1999. During Mr. Shiver's tenure at
USACIL he testified as a expert witness in courts-martial and
federal courts across the U.S., in Europe, and in Asia.
In addition to Division Chief, Mr.
Shiver
held the positions of Questioned Documents Division Training
Officer and Quality Assurance Officer. As Training
Officer, he was responsible for administering USACIL's
course of instruction in Forensic Document Examination. In
doing so, he trained four forensic document examiners for the
U.S. Army. As Quality Assurance Officer, he was
responsible for administering the proficiency testing program
and the quality assurance requirements for the Questioned
Documents Division.
USACIL is a subordinate
organization of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command
(USACIDC), which is better known as CID. Although, USACIL
is operated by the U.S. Army, it performs forensic examinations
for the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Marine Corps,
and other Department of Defense investigative agencies.
In addition to its Forensic
Documents sections, the other sections are Latent Fingerprints,
Firearms/Tool Marks, Serology/DNA, Trace Evidence, Drug
Chemistry, and Imaging. The Imaging Section is responsible
for computer crimes and audio enhancement, as well as imaging.
USACIL has a long history that
dates back to almost the beginning of crime laboratories in the
United States. It began in 1943, in the midst of World War
II, as a mobile laboratory in North Africa. The laboratory
advanced with the troops and eventually was established as a
permanent laboratory in Germany.
A second laboratory,
USACIL-Pacific, was established in the Philippines and
eventually moved to Tokyo, Japan. Beginning in 1948, this
laboratory was commanded by the noted criminologist, Col. Calvin
Goddard. During the Vietnam war, another laboratory was
established in Long Binh, Vietnam. That laboratory's mission was
absorbed to the Japan Laboratory.
The third USACIL laboratory,
USACIL-CONUS, was established at Fort Sam Houston, Texas in 1945
and moved to Fort Gordon, Georgia in 1948. It moved to its
current location, Fort Gillen, Georgia in 1983.
Up until 1987, the three
laboratories independently of one another. In 1987, the
laboratories were placed under a centralized laboratory command
located at Fort Gillem.
As a result of the post-cold war
drawdown of the U.S. Army, USACIL-Pacific was closed in 1993 and
USACIL-Europe was closed in 1996. All crime laboratory
operations were absorbed by the laboratory at Fort Gillem, which
was redesignated as USACIL. In 2006, USACIL moved into a new
$30.1 million dollar facility at Fort Gillem.
The laboratory has been accredited
by the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors
-Laboratory Accreditation Board (ASCLD-LAB) since 1985.
USACIL's motto is "Justitia Per Scientia" (Justice Through
Science).