[1] Membership is multinational, and is open to crime lab directors, managers or supervisors.
[1][2] ASCLD holds an annual members' conference, in which management training is given and networking is encouraged.
[1][3] The origins of ASCLD lie in a meeting of crime laboratory directors organised in 1973 by Clarence Kelly and Briggs White, of the FBI.
At this meeting, a steering committee was formed, which brought ASCLD into being in 1974.
[1][2][4] In the 1980s, ASCLD created subcommittee to develop standards for crime laboratories.