Algorithms in criminal justice

2026-08-28 · Ohio Court of Appeals, First Appellate District · 2026-Ohio-3371

The Ohio appellate court considers a suppression challenge arising from ShotSpotter and real-time crime-center surveillance. It describes how police used automated gunshot detection and video to locate suspects before affirming the search and conviction.

The Cincinnati Police Department deploys surveillance technology to monitor Cincinnati’s residents and visitors. Cincinnati Police Officer Benjamin Williamson testified that ShotSpotter detected the sound of gunshots at the intersection of Vine Street and Green Street, and then on Republic Street, in Cincinnati. To Williamson, the sound and speed of the gunshots suggested a firearm larger …

2026-08-25 · U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

The Seventh Circuit addresses criminal charges alleging use of Stable Diffusion to create CSAM-like images. It analyzes how federal child-exploitation statutes apply to AI-generated depictions and reverses dismissal of key counts, making the opinion important for AI criminal-law doctrine.

Steven Anderegg is charged with pro- ducing, distributing, and possessing visual depictions of mi- nors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and transferring such material to a minor under the age of sixteen. According to the government, Anderegg produced these images using Stable Diffusion, a generative artificial intelligence (“GenAI”) software that allowed him to create hyper-realistic …

2026-08-24 · U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

The Ninth Circuit reviews a San Francisco ammunition conviction involving ShotSpotter alerts and witness reports. The opinion affirms suppression rulings tied to the initial police response while vacating the sentence for unrelated sentencing reasons.

ShotSpotter is a service that detects gunshots and alerts local police to the precise coordinates where the gunshots were detected. USA V. AGUILERA 5 of 22nd and Capp Streets. Several officers arrived near the El Trebol bar around 2:00 a.m., within minutes of receiving the reports of gunshots at that location. A witness, later identified …

2026-07-31 · Texas Court of Appeals, Twelfth District · provisional

The Texas Twelfth Court of Appeals affirms Kevin Higgins’s conviction. The opinion recounts defense counsel’s admission that an AI-produced evidentiary memorandum misstated case holdings because counsel did not read the cited cases, but holds Higgins did not establish Strickland prejudice.

Outside the jury’s presence, the trial judge referred to a written memorandum defense counsel filed regarding the admissibility of said items. During the ensuing colloquy between the trial judge and defense counsel, the trial judge stated that defense counsel’s memorandum misstated the holdings of several cases, whereupon defense counsel admitted that the memorandum was produced …

2026-07-24 · New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Fourth Department · 2026 NY Slip Op 04580 · provisional

The New York appellate court affirms a suppression ruling where officers heard a gunshot and then received a ShotSpotter activation. The opinion treats the activation as corroboration supporting reasonable suspicion for the ensuing pursuit and firearm recovery.

at around 4:30 a.m. on the day in question, the police heard what they perceived—based on their training and experience—to be a gunshot ring out nearby, causing them to immediately respond to that area. While driving to the location, they received a ShotSpotter activation corroborating what they had heard. Arriving at the scene within a …

2026-07-22 · Florida Third District Court of Appeal

The Florida appellate court discusses expert testimony comparing manual DNA interpretation with STRmix probabilistic genotyping. The court affirms after reviewing a Daubert hearing and the defense argument that newer software better suited mixed, low-level DNA profiles.

Defense DNA expert Tiffany Roy disputed the reliability of the State’s testing procedures. Roy testified that Miami-Dade’s crime lab should have updated to a new genotyping software (for example, STRmix), which is better suited for mixed profiles and profiles with low-grade DNA, both of which occurred here. Roy testified that the crime lab’s manual method …

2026-06-19 · U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia · provisional

The D.C. district court evaluates STRmix probabilistic-genotyping evidence among extensive pretrial motions in a robbery and carjacking prosecution. The opinion explains the software’s likelihood ratios and rules on admissibility limits for DNA testimony.

These samples were imported into a probabilistic genotyping software, STRmix, which calculated the statistical probability that Mr. Joyner’s DNA contributed to the DNA profile of the samples (“inclusion”) or did not contribute to it (“exclusion”). See Def.’s Mot. Limit DNA Evid. at 2. For each sample analyzed, STRmix produced a likelihood ratio describing “how much …

2026-06-18 · New York Court of Appeals · 2026 NY Slip Op 03905 · provisional

The New York Court of Appeals describes forensic software used to identify peer-to-peer CSAM sharing and later computer-forensics evidence. The court’s ineffective-assistance analysis turns on stipulations about digital evidence, possession, and mens rea.

In January 2017, an NYPD detective ran a forensic software program to investigate the sharing of child sexual abuse material ("CSAM")FN1 on an online "peer-to-peer network."FN2 Such networks allow users to directly share electronic files without connecting to a central internet server. The forensic program identified 19 video files which were being shared from an …