In this third episode of the “Applications of Forensic Science for Human Identification” season of the National Institute of Justice’s (NIJ’s) Just Science podcast series, Lori Bruski and Amy Jenkinson, two Research Public Health Analysts at RTI International, discuss interagency efforts to compile crime, missing persons, and decedent information in comprehensive databases.
In the digital age, criminal justice information can be uploaded into databases and organized in a searchable centralized location, making it more accessible than ever before. These government databases serve as computerized indices of information that law enforcement, medicolegal death investigators, and, in some cases, the general public can use to help identify unknown human remains and resolve missing persons cases. The interviews discuss the various databases available, where to access them, and how they can be leveraged for forensic science and human identification.