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Ballistic Imaging (2008) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Pages 1-8

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From page 1...
... crime scenes. This system facilitates rapid comparison with archived evidence and with evidence gathered at other crime sites; when matches look promising, the physical evidence can be retrieved for direct examination and confirmation by an examiner.
From page 2...
... (3) stablish a national ballistics database of images from bullets fired E from all, or nearly all, newly manufactured or imported guns for the pur pose of matching ballistics from a crime scene to a gun and information on its initial owner.
From page 3...
... Assessing uniqueness at, say, a submicroscopic level, though probably technically possible, would be extremely difficult and time consuming compared with less definitive but more practical and generally available methods at the macroscopic level. It is an issue of policy and of economics as to whether doing so would be worthwhile.
From page 4...
... However, it is less reliable for distinguishing extremely fine individual marks that would be necessary to make successful matches in RBIDs in which large numbers of exhibits on file would share gross class and subclass characteristics. Second, basic probability calculations under reasonable assumptions suggest that the process of identifying a subset of possible matches that contains the true match with a specified level of certainty depends critically on as-yet underived measures of similarity between and within gun types.
From page 5...
... To this end, the committee offers 15 specific recommendations to improve NIBIN's performance and effectiveness. Seven of the recommendations are oriented principally at the operation of the NIBIN program itself and the practices of NIBIN partner agencies, and they address: • priority for NIBIN entry of cartridge casings collected from crime scenes; • ballistic imaging as a part of the criminal investigation process for state and local agencies; • cross-jurisdictional tally of hits using the NIBIN system; • streamlining of the ballistic image acquisition process and reporting requirements; • development of "best practices" in using NIBIN; • a protocol for the entry of more than one exhibit from the same crime scene or test firing; and • allocation of NIBIN system technology.
From page 6...
... However, there are major substantive challenges -- among them the reduction of data collection time and the refinement of image comparison algorithms that make use of three-dimensional information but are still compatible with existing twod ­ imensional imagery -- that need to be addressed before full consideration can be given to adopting the new standard. ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGIES The goal of a national reference ballistic image database is to provide an investigative link from ballistics evidence to the point of sale of the weapon or ammunition used in a crime.
From page 7...
... These topics include the reliability and durability of the marks in a variety of firing conditions, their susceptibility to tampering and countermeasures, whether it would be best to place them on guns or ammunition or both, and the cost implications and feasibility of adding a microstamping process to established manufacturing processes. PROCESS FOR IMPROVING COMPUTER-ASSISTED FIREARMS IDENTIFICATION The current technology used in automated examination of images of ballistics evidence is produced and maintained by a single vendor.
From page 8...
...  BALLISTIC IMAGING result data -- should be applied for all work related to the improvement in b ­ allistics evidence analysis, including large-scale two-dimensional image search engines, three-dimensional topographical techniques, and microstamping processes.


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