Lexington police are using an on-site computer system to help solve violent crime. It comes during a time when gun related crimes are a major concern in communities across the U.S. including Lexington.
For the past three years, Lexington police officers have been traveling to Louisville to use a special computer system to analyze bullet shell casings. The National Integrated Ballistic Information Network or NIBIN allows for the capturing of digital images of ballistic evidence and matching with shell casings from other crimes. Lexington Police Chief Lawrence Weathers says the computer helps speed up the entire investigative process. “Where it had been days, maybe stretched out to a week, or so. Now, it’s hours. We can get that and run it through and boom, we got it. We can direct our patrol officers and detectives, this is where we need to go,” said Weathers.
Officials at the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Division in Louisville say Lexington is one of 22 communities to get the NIBIN computing technology. There are another 175 such computer systems nationwide.
Stuart Lowrey is Special Agent in Charge of the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Division in Louisville. He says the computers are making a big impact. “Crime guns are being used in multiple shooting incidents, so whether it’s the same shooter or whether the gun is changing hands and being used in another shooting, with a different shooter, those are important leads. And the sooner we get on that, we prevent future shootings,” explained Lowrey.
Similar to a fingerprint, a gun leaves unique microscopic markings on fired bullet casings. Police say even firearms that are the same make and model and produced on the same manufacturing line will generate different markings which officials say the computers are identifying.
