Introduction

Terrestrial LiDAR Scanning Working Group for Criminal Justice Applications, First Meeting Report

Terrestrial LiDAR Scanning Working Group for Criminal Justice Applications, First Meeting Report

Date

July 2020

Overview

On February 27 and 28 of 2020, The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), in partnership with the Forensic Technology Center of Excellence (FTCOE) at RTI International, convened the first meeting of the Terrestrial LiDAR Scanning (TLS) Working Group for Criminal Justice Applications. The TLS Working Group (TLSWG) will support the NIJ-FTCOE’s goals of improving the practice and strengthening the impact of forensic science through rigorous technology corroboration, evaluation, and best practices dissemination.

While the use of this technology is increasing in criminal justice applications, no standardized, vendor agnostic guidelines for use are currently available for end users. The goal of the working group is to develop resources that reflect consensus-based best practices to standardize and improve the use and application of TLS in crime scene documentation and reconstruction. These deliverables will help establish a minimum standard for capture, processing, analysis, visualization, presentation, and storage of TLS data in a forensic context. These resources are intended to promote uniform implementation and use of TLS technology in practice. This will ultimately improve the practitioners’ ability to attain scientifically supportable conclusions from TLS data, ensure effective quality management procedures, and improve presentation of this information to stakeholders, including law enforcement, investigators, and the courts (e.g. prosecutors and defense attorneys, judges, and juries).



Funding for this Forensic Technology Center of Excellence report was provided by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.

The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Contact us at ForensicCOE@rti.org with any questions and subscribe to our newsletter for notifications.


Related Content

Forensic Use of GPR and LiDAR Technology for Clandestine Grave Detection

Thursday, April 18, 2024 | 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Eastern Duration: 1 hour Overview George Mason University (GMU) has conducted a technology evaluation of LiDAR deployed on an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) for crime scene…

2023 NIJ Forensic Science R&D Webinar Series

Overview In this webinar series, the Forensic Technology Center of Excellence (FTCOE) proudly collaborates with forensic science researchers whose projects receive support from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) research grant program. Presenters will highlight advancements in the forensic community…