Ballistic Imaging (2008) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
PART I: Context for Ballistic Imaging Analysis, 1 Introduction
PART I: Context for Ballistic Imaging Analysis, 1 Introduction
Pages 9-29
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 9... ...
PART I Context for Ballistic Imaging Analysis
|
From page 11... ...
The development of this technology has led to speculation about its potential to generate critical investigative leads to possibly related incidents both at the local level and across broad geographic areas. A specific question that has been raised concerns the utility of a national reference ballistic image database (RBID)
|
From page 12... ...
In the 2004–2005 session, proposed bills would have required firearms repair shops to obtain ballistics identifiers for handguns or rifles before returning them to their owners; as of September 2006, no similar bills had been introduced in either chamber. In Massachusetts, a Boston police official lauded the idea as a "great law enforcement tool," pointing to a case that had been solved using NIBIN (linking the same .22 caliber Ruger pistol to shootings of seven people in four cities," as one where an earlier investigative lead to the gun's purchaser would have been useful (Butterfield, 2002)
|
From page 13... ...
(3) ssess the operational utility of ballistics evidence in criminal A investigations -- that is the extent to which it is used or can be used to identify crime guns and suspects and to solve specific crimes.
|
From page 14... ...
initial owner." That is certainly the goal of criminal investigations that would make use of an RBID, but the RBID search itself would be intended to provide an investigative lead to a point of sale, one step removed from information on the initial owner. As with the current gun tracing system, additional investigative work based on the point of sale would be needed to determine a gun's initial ownership; as discussed in Chapter 9, the content of a national RBID does not necessarily involve entering purchaser-specific data.
|
From page 15... ...
Calvin Goddard -- considered the father of modern firearms identification -- was chagrined at his own role in initiating this use of language. He titled his landmark 1925 paper on the use of the comparison microscope "Forensic Ballistics," a name selected "after long and prayerful consideration, and in an effort to employ terms that would be concise and at the same time meaningful;" it was, however, "a title that has plagued me ever since" (Goddard, 1999:233)
|
From page 16... ...
The existing state reference ballistic image databases in Maryland and New York both made key limiting assumptions, restricting their content to cartridge In structuring our work, we have taken the three policy options as a guide; addressing them necessarily involves addressing the issues suggested in the preceding four substantive points of the charge. Cast in language more consistent with usage in the field, we have interpreted our principal task as providing information on three different federal policy options: 1.
|
From page 17... ...
The language of the previous federal bills notwithstanding, we generally a ssume throughout this report that a national reference ballistic image database would be similar to the Maryland and New York models albeit at the larger, national scale. At the minimum, we assume that operational constraints would limit the national reference database to cartridge casings, owing to the time consuming process of discharging weapons in a water tank or other trap so that expended bullets can be recovered in "pristine" condition.
|
From page 18... ...
First, and most significantly, this study is neither a verdict on the uniqueness of firearms-related toolmarks generally nor an assessment of the validity of firearms identification as a discipline. Our charge is to focus on "the uniqueness of ballistic images" -- that is, on the uniqueness and reproducibility of the markings (toolmarks)
|
From page 19... ...
Searches across large databases of fingerprint images begin to add quantitative weight to the claim of fundamental uniqueness, and reconciliations between manual examinations and computer algorithms generate useful debates over how many specific points of similarity must be found before a match can be determined. In time, ballistic image databases may similarly be an important resource for evaluating the basic assumptions of firearms identification; however, development and study of image databases need not wait until those basic assumptions are definitively examined.
|
From page 20... ...
For ballistics evidence, verification is formally made by experienced firearms examiners, who provide sworn expert testimony on evidence matches in court: hence, only direct physical examination of exhibits -- and the judgment of a human firearms examiner -- can certify a "hit," or a "true" match. Our focus is on the question of whether ballistic imaging technologies perform reliably as a search tool to assist human examiners -- spanning large volumes of image data and returning high-likelihood candidate matches for an examiner to consider -- and not on whether computer technology can replace human examiners.
|
From page 21... ...
Committee members and staff visited local NIBIN installations at law enforcement agencies and the headquarters of Forensic Technology WAI, Inc., makers of the computer platform on which NIBIN presently operates. Committee subgroups were also permitted to perform limited experimentation using New York State's CoBIS RBID and the ballistic image database maintained by the New York City Police Department, which is not actively linked to NIBIN but uses the same technology.
|
From page 22... ...
. Thus, tools, such as ballistic imaging technology, that can assist police in solving gun-related crime have a clear benefit for the population at large, particularly if they have some deterrent effect on gun violence.
|
From page 23... ...
Gun homicide rates follow a similar trajectory; however, when population size is considered, the 1974 and 1993 peaks are the same (6.6 gun homicides per 100,000)
|
From page 24... ...
1-3.eps SOURCE: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States (annually; see http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/ [accessed February 2008]
|
From page 25... ...
in 2000 and were judged by ATF to be submitting all recovered firearms for tracing (U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, TABLE 1-1 Gun Homicides and Crime Gun Recoveries in 32 Cities in 2000 Homicide Rate City Gun Homicides per 100,000 Gun Recoveries Atlanta, GA 108 25.9 1,141 Baltimore, MD 202 31.0 4,295 Baton Rouge, LA 33 14.5 1,068 Boston, MA 26 4.4 896 Camden, NJ 17 21.3 165 Charlotte, NC 57 9.1 2,041 Chicago, IL 415 14.3 8,570 Cincinnati, OH 7 2.1 877 Dallas, TX 177 14.9 3,005 Gary, IN 56 54.5 792 Houston, TX 165 8.4 3,909 Indianapolis, IN 67 8.4 3,592 Los Angeles, CA 430 11.6 3,877 Louisville, KY 33 12.9 1,637 Memphis, TN 110 16.9 3,244 Milwaukee, WI 90 15.1 2,283 Minneapolis, MN 38 9.9 949 Nashville, TN 56 10.5 2,297 New Orleans, LA 175 36.1 1,965 New York, NY 434 5.4 6,284 Newark, NJ 40 14.6 584 Oklahoma City, OK 24 4.7 856 Philadelphia, PA 259 17.1 3,041 Phoenix, AZ 110 8.3 4,778 Piedmont Triad, NCa 38 7.7 699 Portland, OR 14 2.6 857 Richmond, VA 53 26.8 1,109 Salinas, CA 16 10.6 327 San Antonio, TX 45 3.9 1,294 San Jose, CA 8 0.9 1,476 St.
|
From page 26... ...
Traditional firearms identification techniques, relying on the direct viewing of specimens under a comparison microscope by a trained firearms examiner, have been used in investigations for decades. As discussed in Section 1–A.2, the identification and confirmation of fired bullets or cartridge cases as having been fired from a specific firearm is the responsibility of human e xaminers.
|
From page 27... ...
The general ballistic imaging methodology we describe in this study has been popularly referred to as ballistic fingerprinting, a term that carries both positive and negative connotations and that is misleading in a very important sense. Most commonly used in relation to a national reference ballistic image database, with the idea of logging a newly sold gun's "fingerprint" before or as a condition of sale, "ballistic fingerprinting" naturally suggests a connection to the more widely known practice of recording human fingerprints.
|
From page 28... ...
Drawing from both these chapters, Chapter 6 outlines operational and technical enhancements that could improve NIBIN. Part III addresses the basic titular charge to the committee, describing evidence on variability in ballistics evidence and the implications for a national reference ballistic image database.
|
From page 29... ...
in articulating the arguments associated with creating a national reference database. Part IV, on future directions, begins in Chapter 10 by discussing alternative technologies to achieve the same goal as a national reference ballistic image database.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.