This is the 2018 Annual Report of the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLETC) System, which is a program of the U.S. Justice Department's National Institute of Justice (NIJ), with the purpose of working with criminal justice professionals in identifying needs and implementing applications of technology and related research relevant to criminal justice policy and practice.
This report indicates that as NIJ prepares to take the Compliance Testing Program (CTP) in a new direction in 2019 with the creation of the new Criminal Justice Testing and Evaluation Consortium, several long-standing programs concluded or are preparing to conclude their activities. This transformation of the overall program began as NIJ marked 50 years of service to the criminal justice community. The activities of the Justice Technology Information Center (JTIC) will end in 2019. The Justice Innovation Center for Small, Rural, Tribal, and Border Agencies (JIC) concluded its mission in December 2018. The Criminal Justice Priority Technology Needs Initiative is conducting research to assess and prioritize technology needs across the criminal justice community. Its goal is to enable innovation in the U.S. criminal justice community. The National Criminal Justice Technology, Research, Test, and Evaluation Center ended its activities in December 2018. The Forensics Technology Center of Excellence improves the practice of forensic science and strengthens its impact through rigorous technology corroboration, evaluation, and adoption, effective knowledge transfer and education, and comprehensive dissemination of best practices and guidelines to criminal justice agencies. The activities of these agencies of the NLECTC System, including those that have or will conclude their activities under the new system, are described in this 2018 Annual Report.