Across the United States, thousands of local, state, and federal police agencies work to safeguard communities and ensure justice. By advancing and integrating science into law enforcement policies and practice, the law enforcement community strives to provide evidence-based procedures that target perpetrators while protecting the innocent. Our reports explore critical issues at the interface of science, technology, and the law; identify structural changes needed to improve the science used by law enforcement and evaluated by the courts; and advance research-based policies.
Facial Recognition Technology: Current Capabilities, Future Prospects, and Governance
Facial recognition technology is increasingly used for identity verification and identification, from aiding law enforcement investigations to identifying potential security threats at large venues. However, advances in this technology have outpaced laws and regulations, raising significant …[more]
On March 13 and 14, 2024, the Committee on Law and Justice and the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop titled Law Enforcement Use of Probabilistic Genotyping, Forensic DNA Phenotyping, and Forensic …[more]
On June 8-9, 2022, an ad hoc planning committee under the auspices of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee on Science, Technology, and Law hosted a workshop, Location Data in the Context of Public Health, Research, and Law Enforcement: An Exploration of …[more]
Identifying the Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification
Identifying the Culprit: Assessing Eyewitness Identification makes the case that better data collection and research on eyewitness identification, new law enforcement training protocols, standardized procedures for administering line-ups, and improvements in the handling of eyewitness …[more]
Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward
Scores of talented and dedicated people serve the forensic science community, performing vitally important work. However, they are often constrained by lack of adequate resources, sound policies, and national support. It is clear that change and advancements, both systematic and scientific, are …[more]
Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence: Third Edition
The Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, Third Edition, assists judges in managing cases involving complex scientific and technical evidence by describing the basic tenets of key scientific fields from which legal evidence is typically derived and by providing examples of cases in …[more]
Review of the Scientific Approaches Used During the FBI’s Investigation of the 2001 Anthrax Letters
Less than a month after the September 11, 2001 attacks, letters containing spores of anthrax bacteria (Bacillus anthracis, or B. anthracis) were sent through the U.S. mail. Between October 4 and November 20, 2001, 22 individuals developed anthrax; 5 of the cases were fatal.
During its …[more]
Forensic Analysis: Weighing Bullet Lead Evidence
Since the 1960s, testimony by representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in thousands of criminal cases has relied on evidence from Compositional Analysis of Bullet Lead (CABL), a forensic technique that compares the elemental composition of bullets found at a crime scene to the …[more]