Goofs

The writers admitted that they took some liberties, to make the show worth watching. CSIs don't really investigate crimes, or take part in interviews. They just collect and analyse evidence. And they do it all wearing booties and "bunny suits" - white a full body covering (inc a hood) to prevent cross contamination. The writers also cut out a lot of waiting around for results and fudged the science to keep things interesting. So the CSIs will often get results that would not be possible in real life. Leading to the "CSI Effect", where juries expect a mountain of forensic evidence for every crime.

"The CSI Effect": Numerous times, autopsies are conducted by people who were wearing the same clothes they wore in the field. Not only does this promote cross-contamination, but it is also highly unsanitary as well as an OSHA violation.

Much is made of Las Vegas being built on a desert, except it wasn't. Deserts get no rain, have no ground water, and have almost no vegetation. Vegas has storm drains for the heavy rainfall.

When the CSI's and detectives are interviewing someone or working crime scenes, they are never seen taking notes or sketching the crime scene. Real CSI's and detectives are constantly taking notes and sketching. The notes and sketches are so important that they are occasionally booked into evidence to ensure the originals will be available for review before trial.

The CSI's often discuss elements of their cases openly in front of people who they have just questioned. This would not occur in real life as they would risk having the person who overheard them potentially contact someone who might be a suspect.

The characters of Nick Stokes and Sara Sidal consistently pronounce Nevada as "NeVAHda", something a real Nevadan would never do.

However, they're not Nevadans: Nick is a Texan and Sara is a Californian.

Many times during different episodes you can see people that are supposed to be dead breathing or moving.