Crime solving technology coming to Wilmington next year

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) -The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was at the Wilmington Police Department Tuesday afternoon to talk about their National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN).

The technology is used to hopefully find a lead in a criminal case by collecting shell casings from shooting incidents, and test firing guns.

“It gives us the ability to compare ballistic evidence cross jurisdictional via data, so essentially the shell casings are recovered from crime scenes and from test fired firearms. They’re able to be put into the system and that information is compared with other crime scenes in the region and across the country,” said Brian Mein, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of ATF Charlotte.

WPD will be getting their own NIBIN unit early next year, and it will be used for departments throughout Southeastern North Carolina. “They’re gonna be one of 240 locations in the country that has an actual unit on location and they’re going to use it regionally so that law-enforcement in this area can come in and utilize the system, they can input data and utilize data in this system,” Mein said.

“In fact roughly 10% of the acquisitions that are put in there come out as some kind of lead that is usable out in the field. So, this is something that if you think about it, one in 10 acquisitions lead to something, that’s really great,”' Mein said. “The more law-enforcement agencies that get involved in this, the more that come on board and utilize this we expect that this will go up those numbers will be even better.”

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