HIGH POINT, N.C. (WGHP) — High Point police can solve crimes with guns in a fraction of the time thanks to new technology.
The department recently implemented a National Integrated Ballistic Information Network. It’s a database that helps connect the gun or the shell casings to other crimes.
The whole idea is to take shell casings, enter them into the NIBIN and wait for a match. If there is one, the detectives now have a new lead in their case.
This process can take about two days to complete. Before they had the technology in-house, it took up to 12 days to get crucial information.
“We have been trying to get to this point for years,” High Point Police Department Forensic Manager Amy Wilde said.
Instead of driving to other departments to get the information, it’s right there at their fingertips.
“It is going to provide us an opportunity to make a difference in the cases faster. It is going to provide us a better ability to identify those who are driving the crime at any given time,” Wilde said.
It all starts with crime scene investigators bringing back the evidence. It could be a shell casing or a gun, and they go through the typical steps to find fingerprints. Then the evidence goes across the hall to the firearms and ballistics examiner.
“There is a lot of reward for me in just being able to have some answers,” HPPD Firearms and Ballistics Examiner Samantha Edmonds said.
One way to get information is by testing it out and shooting two rounds. They collect the shell casings and put them under the microscope.
“If I don’t pick the one that has the most information, it could get missed, so I want something that has a little bit of everything,” Edmonds said.
Once she picks the perfect one, she enters it in the NIBIN.
“The casing knows the truth, so it is just a matter of me trying to understand and translate the casing,” Edmonds said.
Then they wait for a possible match in the system.
“It can take an investigation that is pretty much lowkey … and it makes it way more solvable,” Wilde said.
The goal is to get the guns off the streets.
“I think we are already seeing an impact,” HPPD Captain Jeremy Nemitz said. “If you think of your assaults, drive-by shootings and things of that nature, that is what we are after here with this technology.”
In the first few weeks, the department has seen matches to other cases in the Triad area.
Some departments already have this in place, but the HPPD’s could be used by other agencies in the future.
