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October 19, 2012 By News Staff
A new technology for law enforcement agencies first announced in August is now being adopted in Louisiana.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the FBI developed a new standard in August that allows law enforcement to accurately match shell casings with a national database in order to solve crimes. The database, called the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN), is now being used by the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab.
"In a lot of cases the detective may not have a lead or any kind of information that's going to help him solve his case," Jeff Goudeau, the firearms supervisor for Louisiana State Police Crime Lab, told WAFB Channel 9 in Baton Rouge. "We can tell him, ‘hey - the gun that did your shooting is the same as the one in another shooting' which can sometimes be in a whole different agency or at least a different part of the city."
Officials said that so far, they've linked 600 shootings to each other using the database. Sometimes, a single gun was used in several different shootings; in one case, a single gun was used in at least eight shootings.
"The technology helps us say, 'hey these two cartridge cases look like they may have been used in the same gun.' We still have to manually put it on the microscope and confirm and it has to be two examiners to confirm that it is the same gun that was used in those two scenes," Goudeau told WAFB. "We still can't do things in an hour like they do on TV, but from the time a shooting occurs normally we can have a report in a detectives hand within two to three weeks.”
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We in NYS finally abandoned this expensive system ($32 million)- in 10 years of use, hundreds of thousands of cases entered into the system - only 2 'hits' and no convictions. NY required every new handgun have a case entered into the system, which was a hassle for manufactures, dealers and consumers. Save your money, LA.. ■The large number of shell casing generated by these systems so pollute the crime gun databases as to render them useless. ■A whole category of firearms (revolvers) typically do not leave shell casing evidence at a crime scene. ■All potential “hits” must be microscopically examined to be scientifically valid, the logistics of such examination cannot easily be addressed. ■Markings on cartridge casings can change with use and can also be readily altered by the user. Some brands of handguns can change significantly with as few as 50 rounds fired. ■Different brands of ammunition can produce different markings on shell casings from the same gun. ■Some manufacturing processes can produce multiple copies of a single model that are not easily distinguished. ■Chain of custody issues with the manufacturer supplied shell casings may routinely be rejected by the courts as unreliable.
And ballistics is what happens when the bullet leaves the gun. Toolmarks is what happens when the steel of the gun scratches the brass of the casing, or scores the copper/lead/whatever of the slug.