Mpls. Police To Combat Gun Violence With State-Of-The-Art Ballistic Machine
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Minneapolis police are going high-tech in the fight against crime.
A new initiative to stop gun violence in north Minneapolis includes a machine that looks like it's right out of CSI. It's called the IBIS and it analyzes and compares firearm related evidence stored in a database.
The process starts by putting a fired bullet casing into the IBIS machine. It analyzes the casing, and then pulls up any possible matches to guns within the database.
The machine replaces the old model police used since 2002.
"This is 15 years newer technology and the results come back a lot better," forensic firearms technician Timothy Sittlow said.
The images on the new machine are even 3D. Minneapolis will also be the first city to get an HD upgrade.
"Without this information and all the hits we've had, investigators wouldn't have the leads that are generated by this," Sittlow said.
Police can also work backwards if they recover a gun but no fired bullet casings. They'll test fire the gun to run the casings through the IBIS to see if the gun links to any other crimes.
With every gun being tested for fingerprints, police are hoping the new technology will lead them to shooters.
"We try to figure out who's pulling the trigger, who's committing the crimes, who's got information that they can share to the group so we can solve this crime," Minneapolis Deputy Chief Chris Arneson said.
Since 2002, the old IBIS machine found more than 1,500 matches. Police expect that number to go up with the new technology.
