The Law Enforcement Officer as an Expert Witness an Exploration of Principles and Methods

• In Event: Lightning Talk: Modern Policing: Challenges, Innovations, and Recommendations for Change

Abstract

This presentation will discuss the practice of the government using law enforcement officers as expert witnesses under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 in drug cases. Specifically, the presentation will focus on the "principles and methods" requirement to ascertain whether the testimony offered under these practices is grounded in any reliable scientific method. The hypothesis is that there is no quantifiable data to support the testimony that is offered by experts in this field. Instead, law enforcement officers routinely offer non-scientific, non-testable, and non-reliable opinion testimony as to generalized characteristic evidence. This presentation will discuss an examination of federal cases where such testimony has been offered and identify themes and trends. These themes will be tested against the social science research, data collected from criminal cases in the Southern District of Ohio. Courts routinely allow this testimony in federal drug cases which is often contrary to the scientific data. This presentation will discuss the preliminary findings of this research and discuss recommendations for changes to the application of Evidence Rule 702 in this context based on the findings in this research project

Author

• Wendy Calaway, University of Cincinnati