Washington Police Agencies Step Up Testing of ‘Crime Guns’

“Is the gun from your murder case hiding in the evidence vault of a neighboring police department?” firearms expert Pete Gagliardi asked the group of detectives and personnel from 31 police agencies at a Washington Criminal Justice Training Center seminar last week. Each time a gun is fired, it ejects a shell that has marks as unique as fingerprints. This important piece of evidence gives agencies that have collected firearms off the streets a great tool against murders with firearms and other gun crimes. However, many police agencies have several firearms that have not been tested and are simply sitting in their vaults. Brad Buckles, the ATF director  in 1999 when the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) was created, said that “there are thousands, probably tens of thousands of firearms around the country in police department vaults that are never test-fired and are never entered into that system. Recently however, the ATF is following the Washington State Patrol’s Seattle crime lab’s lead in gaining more advanced analyses of shell casings through the use of a new 3D terminal that connects to the NIBIN network.

 

See the full article and a video here.

Source: forensicmag.com

[Abstract by ForensIQ Intern – Mark Lombard]

 

Citation:

Ingalls, C. (2013, 20). King5.com. Washington police agencies step up testing of ‘crime guns’. Retrieved February 26, 2013, from http://www.king5.com/news/local/KING-5-Investigation-prompts-WA-police-agencies-to-take-closer-look-at-their-crime-guns-192113341.html