Bandera de Estados Unidos

Un sitio oficial del Gobierno de Estados Unidos, Departamento de Justicia.

Forensic DNA Education for Law Enforcement Decisionmakers

Maintaining Public Trust

Home  |  Glossary  |  Resources  |  Help  |  Contact Us  |  Course Map
 

Maintaining Public Trust

Photo of a lock and key
National Institute of Justice (NIJ) (ver política de reutilización).

The public expects and demands that forensic services will produce accurate results.

Inadequate procedures or procedures that are not followed open the door to potentially serious mistakes. A systematic breakdown in forensic services will result in laboratory analyses and findings that cannot be trusted. When this occurs, the rest of the criminal justice system and the public will quickly lose trust.

The consequences for public safety, the law enforcement administrators responsible for the agencies, and laboratories could be severe. Criminals may be set free or innocent citizens may be wrongly convicted. The system will lose credibility with the public, and law enforcement administrators and other elected officials will ultimately bear the blame.

Back Forward