NCJ Number
192535
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 49 Issue: 11 Dated: November 2001 Pages: 101-106
Date Published
November 2001
Length
6 pages
Annotation
The National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) is a new way to combine the research power of automation with the expertise of firearms examiners to produce more solved crimes for police agencies.
Abstract
Under this program ATF provides State and local police agencies with ballistic imaging equipment. Agency users enter incoming firearms evidence into the system and then search it against the database of previously entered evidence to find links to other crimes. NIBIN makes the most of firearms examiner resources by reducing to a minimum the number of comparisons that firearms examiners must make before finding a match. However, the NIBIN system is not a substitute for good police work. Firearms examiners repeat the comparison with the original evidence to confirm the match. Police must follow the lead by thorough investigation to yield arrests and convictions. The system uses equipment called the Integrated Ballistics Identification System (IBIS) manufactured by Forensic Technology, Incorporated, of Montreal, Ontario, Canada. State and larger police agencies use a Data Acquisition Station linked via local area to a regional server. A national network will eventually enable NIBIN partner agencies to search their submissions against crime guns entered by other police agencies nationwide. The law expressly limits the NIBIN Program to the ballistic imaging of data associated with crime guns. In contrast, some State databases include all firearms sold in the State. Federal deployment of IBIS technology gives State and local police agencies a tool that many would be unable to fund without Federal assistance and a networking structure for making the most effective use of the information gathered. Photographs