Regulatory and enforcement agencies are encountering technology issues at an ever-increasing pace. Some cases are inherently about technology, such as matters involving cybersecurity, data privacy, and AI accountability. Others benefit from application of technology, such as using data science to root out fraud. Policymaking can similarly raise technology issues. Integrating the unique knowledge, skillsets, and perspectives that technologists can provide is essential for modern enforcement and regulation.

This document offers practical recommendations for how state enforcement and regulators, like attorneys general, financial regulators, or insurance commissioners, can effectively work with technologists. It explains what technologists can do, when to bring them in, and how they can strengthen your case – whether you’re drafting a subpoena, reviewing evidence, or designing a remedy.

The goal of this document is to make it easier for legal, policy, and investigative staff to understand when and how to work with technologists—and to help technologists explain the value they bring to regulatory work. It’s meant to demystify the kinds of support technologists can provide, from early case scoping to drafting remedies, and to offer a shared starting point for collaboration. For non-technical staff, the document offers practical guidance on what technologists can do and how to structure questions, requests, or workflows to make the most of their expertise. For technologists, it serves as a reference they can fork and adapt to their own agency or workflow—adding tools, examples, or approaches that reflect their day-to-day work. More broadly, this guide can help agencies think about how to build and structure in-house technical capacity that is well-aligned with enforcement and policy priorities.

How to use this document: 

For legal, policy, and investigative staff: Use this document to understand how technologists can contribute across different phases of a case, from pre-investigation through settlement. It can help you:

• Spot issues that might benefit from a technologist’s expertise
• Identify opportunities to integrate technologists into enforcement and regulatory activities
• Structure how technologists collaborate with agency leadership, attorneys, policy professionals, and investigators
• Think through how your agency or office might develop a technical function internally

For technologists: Use this as a baseline you can fork, adapt, or extend to reflect your specific agency, workflow, or role. You might add:

• Examples of deliverables you’ve produced
• Internal tools or platforms you regularly use
• Tailored guidance for collaborating with your office’s legal or policy staff

If you don’t yet have any technologists at your agency:

There are free or low-cost ways to seek help or collaborate with technical experts while you build your team:

• Find out if your state has a “Digital Service” team already on board. That means you already have technical experts as government colleagues. Share this post with them, and grab a coffee to explore how their skills might complement your agency’s efforts on tech-related issues or how they might help you recruit others with necessary skills.
• Use flexible workforce authorities to onboard experts from other state agencies, academia, or civil society. These authorities differ by state and agency. Ask your agency’s human resources team about whether you can bring in experts using details, mobility agreements, talent exchanges, gifts of services, consulting agreements, or any other approaches.
• Invite the U.S. Digital Response to work on a critical project. They help governments, nonprofits, and public entities respond quickly to critical public needs and are fast, free, and nonpartisan. An example project would be asking their help to dig into how seniors are being targeted for scams online using large platforms and prototyping a way for your office to monitor related emerging trends.
• Contact academic experts who have carried out relevant research or are at a local institution. They may be able to help or point you in the right direction. Academic researchers may be interested in learning more about the open questions you have. In some cases, you may be able to find researchers who are willing to incorporate your questions into their research programs.