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Duke Law Journal Online
VOLUME 69 SEPTEMBER 2019
Reflection
FORENSICS AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL
SUE BALLOUt
What have the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) and other federal organizations done in the past ten years
since the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Identifying the
Needs of the Forensic Sciences Community released its report,
Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States?' I know exactly
where I was ten years ago, on February 16, 2009, because the American
Academy of Forensic Sciences holds its meetings every year in
February.2 During its 2009 annual meeting, the tension among all
participants was at the roof: Have you seen the Report? Did you
see a copy of the Report? When is the Report coming out? What
is the Report saying? It was hard to pay attention to the educational
offerings provided at the meeting: Did they get a ding on their cell
phone? Was it released?
A copy of the Report was released that week, and it was as if
everything stopped. People started putting the meeting aside just to
read the Report. Thank goodness there was an executive summary
(since, after all, the entire Report is 352 pages long). When we read the
Report (and I know because I was pulled into several sidebars during
the meeting) many people were upset. Some scientists responded to
the report saying, This is my profession, you just dissed me; I'm not
going any further on it. I kind of felt the same way, having devoted
my life to this profession. After the initial shock, a lot of people kind
of shook their heads, sat down, and said, Okay, let's really look at
Copyright 2019 © Sue Ballou.
t Program Manager for Forensic Science, National Institute of Standards and Technology;
Immediate Past President, American Academy of Forensic sciences. This Reflection piece is
adapted from remarks made at a March 6, 2019 conference at Duke Law School, made possible
by the Innocence Project, Duke Law School, and the Center for Statistics and Applications to
Forensic Evidence.
1. COMM. ON IDENTIFYING THE NEEDS OF THE FORENSIC SCI. CMTY., NAT'L RESEARCH
COUNCIL OF THE NAT'L ACADS., STRENGTHENING FORENSIC SCIENCE IN THE UNITED STATES:
A PATH FORWARD (2009), https://www.nap.edu/read/12589/chapter/2 [https://perma.cc/JG6Y-
X8SN] [hereinafter STRENGTHENING FORENSIC SCIENCE].
2. Future & Past AAFS Meetings, AM. ACAD. FORENSIC SCI., https://www.aafs.org/home-
page/meetings/future-past-aafs-meetings [https://perma.cc/NJ7S-UV38].](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/duljo69&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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