Law enforcement agencies continue to seek alternatives to lethal force and better methods to subdue individuals in order to minimize injuries and death. Less-lethal technologies have been used by law enforcement for this purpose extensively since the early 1990s. As of spring 2010, conducted energy devices (CEDs) causing electro muscular disruption have been procured by more than 12,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States. Approximately 260,000 CEDs have been issued to law enforcement officers nationwide. Police adoption has been driven by two major beliefs: first, that CEDs...

The Computer Forensics Tool Testing (CFTT) program is a joint project of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology Office of Law Enforcement Standards (OLES) and Information Technology Laboratory (ITL). CFTT is supported by other organizations, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center, U.S. Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division Electronic Crimes Program, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration...

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has welcomed the report by the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences entitled, Strengthening the National Institute of Justice, released on July 2, 2010. The report offers a significant blueprint for NIJ to move forward as the premier federal science agency focusing on the research, development and evaluation of crime and justice topics. On July 22, 2010, I was sworn in as the Director of the National Institute of Justice. Never before in the history of the Institute has the position of Director been filled by someone with...