Evaluation of Digital Evidence Processing Efficiencies in Publicly Funded Crime Laboratories Project

Nichole Bynum

Nichole Bynum is a Research Forensic Scientist in RTI’s Forensic Chemistry and Toxicology Program, part of the Center for Forensic Science Advancement and Application. Ms. Bynum is a board-certified toxicologist with diplomate status from the American Board of Forensic Toxicology. She specializes in analyzing drugs of abuse in human matrices and developing methods to quantify small molecules for a variety of applications. She currently co-leads the Evaluation of Digital Evidence Processing Efficiencies in Publicly Funded Crime Laboratories project and has served as a principal investigator (PI) and co-PI for several National Institute of Justice-funded research projects.

Prior to joining RTI, Ms. Bynum was a forensic chemist for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Chapel Hill, NC.

Chris Williams 

Mr. Williams, a Public Health Analyst in RTI’s Center for Public Safety and Resilience, has nearly a decade of experience supporting criminal justice-based initiatives from a variety of clients, primarily within the federal and state government sectors. His expertise in training and technical assistance and leading large scale data collection efforts assist multidisciplinary practitioners in implementing best practices and forming sustainable models for response to violent crime in their respective communities. Across several projects, Mr. Williams directs the development, review, and dissemination of many evidence-based deliverables, including briefs, webinars, virtual panels and in-person trainings. Additionally, he coordinates the delivery of needs assessments, deploying quantitative and qualitative research studies, and constructing written research reports.  His current research spans across a variety of topics, including sexual assault and violent crime response reform, assessing agency response to fatal and non-fatal shootings, evaluating forensic laboratory practices for the processing of digital evidence, and the standardization of Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) data in law enforcement agencies.

Prior to joining RTI in 2017, Mr. Williams worked as a Research Technician within NC State University’s Department of Molecular Biomedical Sciences, focusing on the validation and optimization of next generation DNA sequencing devices for high throughput methodologies with forensic science applications. His research has been presented at the International Symposium on Human Identification and published in Forensic Science International: Genetics and Forensic Science International: Synergy.

Peyton Scalise

Peyton Scalise, a public health analyst in the Center for Public Safety and Resilience in the Justice Practice Area, has 4 years of experience in public health-related research. Mrs. Scalise has assisted on multiple research projects and presentations involving community well-being. She specializes in the intersection of public health and policing, substance use prevention and treatment, and sexual assault response reform. Her research interests include addressing health, social, and justice issues in the context of substance use; violence against women; and vicarious trauma in public safety, as well as police-community relations and law enforcement coordination with public health. Mrs. Scalise builds bridges across disciplines to provide improved services and support to victims of sexual assault and to facilitate effective responses and support for individuals experiencing substance use disorder. She has experience in providing training and technical assistance (TTA) to state and local entities; conducting literature reviews, basic statistical analysis, and cognitive interviews; writing technical reports; disseminating findings; and marketing.

Ruby Johnson

Ms. Johnson is a research statistician who has experience with sampling, weighting, and analyses for large and small surveys. Her expertise is sampling using both stratified simple random sampling and probability proportionate to size techniques and production of analysis weights, balanced repeated replication weights, and jackknife weights. Proficient with SAS and SUDAAN, she has used both on numerous survey data sets for producing descriptive analyses, standardized comparisons, and multivariate models using linear and logistic regression.

Herschel Sanders

Ms. Sanders is a research survey methodologist who is experienced in qualitative and quantitative research methods. Her qualitative experience includes developing study protocols and moderator guides, conducting cognitive testing and in-depth interviews, holding an expert panel, holding focus groups, designing and formatting paper instruments, evaluating survey questionnaires using the questionnaire appraisal system, and led methodology report writing. She works with projects to create survey specification documents, programming survey instruments, and led a team of survey testers. She has also helped projects with recruitment plans. Her quantitative experience includes tracking recruitment soft and hard targets, monitoring data collection response rates, cleaning survey data, conducting statistical analyses, and writing reports. She has worked on a variety of data collection modes including paper, web, CATI, and CAPI. She has worked in both domestic and international settings.

John Grassel

John Grassel is a Forensic Science Program Manager at RTI. In this role, he leads cutting-edge, technology-driven efforts to support basic and applied research serving the criminal justice and forensic science communities. Mr. Grassel serves as the Co-Principal Investigator for the National Institute of Justice’s Forensic Technology Center of Excellence (FTCoE), which supports the forensic science and criminal justice communities with transitioning research into practice. He is also the Principal Investigator for the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Implementation of the Organization of Scientific Area Committees (OSAC) Standards for Scene Investigation project.

Before joining RTI, Mr. Grassel served as the officer in charge of the Rhode Island State Police Forensic Services Unit. In this role, he supervised all crime scene functions, pattern evidence examinations, bloodstain pattern analysis, shooting reconstruction, and video analysis. Additionally, Mr. Grassel served for 28 years on active duty and in the reserves of the U.S. Marine Corps, where he retired at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.