This is the first in a series of articles about the more than 30 Scientific Working Groups (SWGs) and TechnologyWorking Groups (TWGs) active within the criminal justice system. These groups play an enormous role in developing standards and guidelines and guiding research and development in the forensic sciences and many other technical areas related to law enforcement, security, and corrections. This article presents a brief overview of TWGs and SWGs and information on the current activities of three SWGs—SWGFAST, SWGGUN, and SWGDRUG.

The FBI and the First TWGs
In the late 1980s, when DNA evidence was first introduced in U.S. court cases, it was relatively easy to refute because there were no generally accepted standards for performing DNA analyses. The FBI convened a group of scientists to meet that challenge. By 1990 this Technical Working Group for DNA Analysis Methods (TWGDAM) had developed guidelines for proficiency testing and, by 1993, guidelines for quality assurance, giving DNA evidence solid scientific footing in the courtroom.

The Daubert standard, established by the Supreme Court ruling in 1993, posed new challenges to the admissibility of all types of evidence. Based on the success of TWGDAM, the FBI created new working groups composed of scientists and charged with developing and standardizing forensic protocols and analytical practices.

NIJ: A Second Branch of TWGs
At the same time, the Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice (NIJ), which researches and develops criminal justice technologies and develops equipment performance standards for those technologies, borrowed the FBI model and expanded on it. NIJ created its own TWGs to identify the technical needs of the criminal justice community and recommend programs that NIJ should fund to achieve solutions. Instead of limiting membership to scientists, NIJ invited participation from everyone with a professional interest in its work—practitioners, scientists, engineers, attorneys, manufacturers, academicians, professional associations, and other government agencies. The idea was to tap into the broadest possible range of knowledge and experience.

Today: SWGs and TWGs
Both branches of technical working groups have grown over the past fifteen years. Today, the FBI sponsors eleven groups, now known as scientific working groups (SWGs), dedicated to various forensic disciplines. Other SWGs are sponsored by organizations such as the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Information on the FBI SWGs can be found in the FBI Laboratory 2005 Report (FBI Publication #0357), available online at http://www.fbi.gov/hq/lab/labannual05.pdf.

NIJ's groups, now called Technology Working Groups (TWGs), number eighteen.Most focus on law enforcement, security, and corrections technologies, but three—DNA Forensics, Electronic Crime, and General Forensics—cover forensic disciplines. You can find information on NIJ's TWGs at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/topics/technology/workinggroups.htm.