ATF Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Fulton of the St. Louis Field Office, Kansas City Field Division, said the Firearm and Toolmark Identification Section of the department's Laboratory Identification Division achieved the distinction. "The St. Louis police have been the kind of model NIBIN user that ATF hopes to duplicate throughout the country," Fulton said.
ATF's National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) is a computerized ballistic imaging system that uses Integrated Ballistics Identification System (IBIS) technology to allow firearms technicians and examiners to acquire, digitize and compare unique markings made by a firearm on bullets and cartridge casings. ATF currently deploys NIBIN at 228 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and forensic laboratories.
NIBIN enables the agencies to discover links between evidence from multiple crime scenes more quickly and to discover links that would not be made without the technology.
Through July 2005, NIBIN partner agencies have imaged more than 890,000 pieces of ballistic evidence into the database and have linked more than 23,600 crime scenes. St. Louis joins 36 other cities that have had over 100 "hits" on the system.
Mokwa and Fulton both thanked the St. Louis police laboratory personnel for their tireless efforts in making NIBIN successful and productive in St. Louis.
"It still takes old fashioned police work to investigate, solve and prosecute these cases, but the NIBIN program has provided essential links between seemingly unrelated shooting scenes, and in some cases, has provided new investigative leads," Mokwa said.
