Justice in Forensic Algorithms Act of 2021

Justice in Forensic Algorithms Act of 2021

This bill establishes a federal framework to govern the use of computational forensic software. The term computational forensic software means software that relies on an automated computational process to assess evidence in a criminal investigation (e.g., facial recognition technology).

The framework contains various elements, including the following:

• requirements for the establishment of testing standards and a testing program for computational forensic software,
• requirements for the use of computational forensic software by federal law enforcement agencies and related entities (e.g., crime labs),
• a ban on the use of trade secret evidentiary privilege to prevent federal criminal defendants from accessing evidence collected using computational forensic software or information about the software (e.g., source code), and
• limits on the admissibility of evidence collected using computational forensic software.