National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center
The National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) recently completed a reorganization that will better enable the system to carry out its critical mission to assist state, major city and county, rural, tribal and border, as well as federal law enforcement, corrections and other criminal justice agencies in addressing their technology needs and challenges.
Background
Originally created in 1994 as a program of the National Institute of Justice’s (NIJ’s) Office of Science and Technology, the NLECTC System has realigned its outreach efforts into three new centers serving different demographic regions of the public safety community: the States, Major Cities and Counties Regional Center and the Small, Rural, Tribal and Border Regional Center.
Resources
The States, Major Cities and Counties Regional Center offers a resource and outreach mechanism for state, major city and county criminal justice system partners, with a mission of ensuring that larger criminal justice agencies (those having 50 or more sworn personnel) have unbiased access to a full range of relevant scientific and technology-related information. The Small, Rural, Tribal and Border Regional Center publicizes its programs and services to small, rural, tribal and border agencies across the country. The efforts of these centers complement those of NLECTC-National, which coordinates NIJ’s Compliance Testing program and standards development efforts for a variety of equipment used in the public safety arena, and the Centers of Excellence (CoEs), which support NIJ’s research, development, testing and evaluation (RDT&E) efforts in specific portfolio areas. The CoEs focus on the following topic areas: Communications Technologies, Forensic Science, Sensors, Surveillance and Biometric Technologies, and Weapons and Protective Systems. The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Office of Law Enforcement Standards provides scientific and research support to these efforts.
Provisions
As a whole, the NLECTC System provides:
- • Scientific and technical support to NIJ’s RDT&E projects.
- • Support for the transfer and adoption of technology into practice by law enforcement and corrections agencies, courts and crime laboratories.
- • Assistance in developing and disseminating equipment performance standards and technology guides.
- • Assistance in the demonstration, testing and evaluation of criminal justice tools and technologies.
- • Technology information and general and specialized technology assistance.
- • Assistance in setting NIJ’s research agenda by convening practitioner-based advisory groups to help identify criminal justice technology needs and gaps.
- TechBeat
TechBeat is the award-winning news-magazine of the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) system. Our goal is to keep you up to date with technologies currently being developed by the NLECTC system, as well as other research and development efforts within the federal government and private industry. TechBeat is published monthly online and is available at no cost.
- JUSTNETNews
The National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC) provides the Law Enforcement & Corrections Technology News Summary as a service to law enforcement, corrections, and forensic science practitioners. The Summary includes abstracts of articles from major national newspapers, business magazines, Web sites, national and international wire services, and periodicals focusing on law enforcement and corrections technology.
NLECTC Centers of Excellence
The NLECTC system's regional centers, the Technology Centers of Excellence (CoE), and specialty offices work directly with United States Federal, State, and local government agencies; community leaders; and scientists to foster technological innovations that result in new products, services, systems, and strategies for America's criminal justice professionals.
External resources
List of NLECTC Regional Centers and Centers of Excellence
- NLECTC-National
- Justice Technology Information Center (JTIC)
- Justice Innovation Center
- Forensic Technology Center of Excellence
- National Criminal Justice Technology Research, Test and Evaluation (RT&E) Center
- Criminal Justice Priority Technology Needs Initiative