Factual error: The CSI doesn't prioritize cases by importance, and have samples from big cases go first like they do on the show. They don't have the lab in house like on the show. It's too expensive. They have to send samples from even the most important cases, to labs where it takes weeks to months to test DNA to keep down costs. They also have to do this to make sure DNA testing is done correctly. DNA has to be tested multiple times because mistakes can be made.
Suggested correction: This entry is half correct and half incorrect. It is true that DNA is not as accurate as the show depicts and no lab would run it one time. However, some CSIs do have a lab "in house" as in some units that's their "office" so to speak. Not true of all of them, but is for some. While law enforcement won't openly admit this; they do put a rush sometimes on high profile cases as they have a reputation to maintain and it won't look good to the public if results aren't coming back quick enough.
Factual error: In the scene where Hodges describes the camera glass to Grissom, he states that camera lenses are curved on one side and flat on the other for a higher refractive index. The refractive index is a property of the glass and has nothing to do with its shape. Also lenses used in cameras can have any shape to them, with even a moderately good lens in a compact camera being made of several pieces of glass with few flat surfaces. This is not modern technology in camera lenses, they have been made like this for decades. Narrowing it down to a non-compact camera by Nikon, Canon or Leica is also wrong, as all manufacturers use these techniques.
Revealing mistake: Mickey Dunn is played as a young man by Rik Young with hazel eyes. His eyes are much darker than the older Mickey Dunn, played by Roger Daltrey. Roger Daltrey's eyes are notoriously as 'blue as the sky'.
Revealing mistake: As the phone number 702-555-0192 is supposedly dialed, you can hear in the sound overlay that the last two digits dialed on the touchtone keypad were the same two digits. Then it shows a close-up of the cell phone dialing the above number.
Revealing mistake: The mom on Doc's table quite breathes, and her bottom lip moves slightly during the autopsy.
Continuity mistake: The dead news lady anchor's expression changes between shots from decedent to total shock while Sarah and Russell discuss the case.
Blood Drops - S1-E7
Visible crew/equipment: Near the start there is a visible mic boom just above Grissom's head to the left for a second. (00:03:23)
Other mistake: When Brass is asking if a witness or someone they are speaking with knows the victim, you can see the victim's name on the bottom of the crime scene photo before brass is supposed to know the identity of the victim.
Other mistake: When the kid Billy is recounting the murder scene, he states the killer grabbed a cookie from within the cow cookie jar. When Katherine lifts the lid afterwards, we see bloody fingerprints up inside the top, instead of on the lid. Indicating the killer had to have carelessly reached inside the cookie jar with his fingertips, which would have been impossible.
Factual error: When Grissom calls Greg into his office to ask him about his Scandinavian heritage, Greg says his grandfather was kicked out of Norway for getting his grandmother pregnant before they were married. Norway did not kick people out of country for that reason. Anyone who does family research will see that 7 out of 10 times a child was born out of wedlock or illegitimate, and nothing was done about it. It is recorded in the church records and that is it, there were lots of reasons this happened that children were born to unwed parents. Main reason was that they applied to be married and the marriage was disapproved of for one reason or another. Europeans are not as prudish as Americans about this stuff. A lot of Scandinavians nowadays live together, have kids and never get married.
You Kill Me - S8-E8
Character mistake: While looking at the evidence that was knocked onto the floor, Greg picks up a woman's shoe in his bare hand causing his finger prints to get on it. When investigating a crime, even one in a "whodunit" game, he should have been wearing gloves.
The Fallen - S14-E19
Factual error: DB Russell gives Mark Roberts a bottle of water to hold. In the blood he leaves his fingerprint on the bottle. Stokes is watching with another policeman the CCTV footage from the interview room. Stokes then says grab a screen shot of the water bottle. They zoom in and low and behold they get a totally clear fingerprint. No way to get that much clarity from a CCTV camera. (00:17:00)
Character mistake: When Russell is reading the bio for the suspect who had dressed as a reindeer at the party and was looking for her contact lens, the bottom of the page lists "Identification Databases Checked:" and lists several states and 5 cities under each one. Alabama and Colorado have the same 5 (Alabama) cities listed. Also, the form lists several pieces of information - Class, DOB, Height, Weight, Eyes, Eyes, Hair, Restrictions, Contact Lens Serial No and Criminal History and Occupation. (Yes, "Eyes" is there twice.) The first "Eyes" field lists a name (emergency contact?), which illustrates how badly the prop department prepared this form. Lastly, despite the suspect's DOB being 04.12.1987 (either April 12 or December 4), and this episode taking place in December 2013, Russell states that she is 23 (but should be 26). (00:15:20)
Continuity mistake: The son of a CSI is waiting in a hospital hallway. He is sitting on a bench with his elbows on his legs and his hands fisted together on his chin, holding a red jacket. Morgan approaches him, and the next shot shows him with one his left hand across the right leg and the right under his chin. The jacket is also in a completely different position.
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Riley Adams takes a victim's wallet from David Phillips, she takes the wallet with her left hand with no glove on. Next shot Riley has gloves on both hands.
Cats in the Cradle... - S2-E20
Continuity mistake: Marcie Tobin's BMW 7 Series changes from a newer (at the time) E38 model to the first generation E23 when it explodes. Obviously the production couldn't afford to blow up a brand new car so the older model was substituted.
Continuity mistake: When Brass calls Dr. Ray and gets his voicemail instead, Brass raises the phone to his ear twice. (00:02:00)
Character mistake: When Catherine is being questioned about the victim, it is mentioned that her parents were killed in an industrial accident in Odessa. To which Catherine replies, "Russia?", and is answered in the affirmative. Odessa is a major city in the Ukraine, not Russia.
Factual error: When Nick picks up the contact lens from the PI's body, you can tell from the way it bends while he is holding it with the forceps that it is soft and pliable, as if it had just come out of the eye. However, after 6-12 hours outside of an eye or a contact case (the amount of time David says the PI has been dead), a soft contact will dry out and become wrinkled and hard.
Continuity mistake: When Brass is interrogating the bartender, there is a cup of coffee in front of him. In the next shot of the bartender's face, the cup is gone. It reappears later on in the scene in a shot from the side. (00:27:00)
