Roundtable: Opportunities and Challenges in Using Firearms Evidence to Advance Criminal Investigations at the Local Level

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Sessions

Abstract/Description

It has been over 30 years since the federal government began efforts to realize a national database for computerized ballistic imaging aimed at matching the unique markings left on projectiles and shell casings back to the firearms from which they were expelled as a means of informing criminal investigations. Built around a similar logic and infrastructure as the automated fingerprint (AFIS) and DNA (CODIS) databases, the National Integrated Ballistics Identification Network (NIBIN) has the potential to link crime guns to events and perpetrators to significantly increase the swiftness and certainty of apprehension. This roundtable seeks to consider shortcomings and opportunities in the precision and scope of ballistic evidence processing and how they may impede or enhance the potential of firearms evidence and corresponding criminal investigation outcomes.

Sub Unit

• Area XIV. Roundtables

Chair

• Dean Dabney, Georgia State University

Discussants

• Alaina De Biasi, Wayne State University

• Natalie Hipple, Indiana University Bloomington

• Rick Dierenfeldt, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

• William King, Boise State University