U.S. Attorney, Danville Chief discuss crime reduction in Virginia's Western District
ROANOKE, Va. (WSET) — In Roanoke, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Virginia State Police, and Danville Police joined U.S. Attorney Christopher Kavanaugh on Thursday to address violent crime in our region.
The conference focused on how the different departments can work together to deal with crimes involving guns.
The main way is through the NIBIN system. That’s the National Integrated Ballistic Information System.
SEE ALSO: Man who pleaded guilty in Appomattox murder, abduction and arson case sentenced
It’s a way for departments to match up bullet casings used by the same gun in different crimes.
"This technology is a vital part to any violent crime strategy where that strategy is built on forensics and data," US Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh said.
This will help connect guns used at one scene to other places where they’ve been used as well.
"That becomes a valuable lead for investigators to begin to run down," Kavanaugh said. "And sometimes a case can be built around that."
The casings are uploaded to this system, much like fingerprints, and if a casing with the same markings is already in the system, it links the two.
"This is a multi-agency faceted initiative, Col. Gary T. Settle, the Superintendent of Virginia State Police, said. "And it's aimed at the challenges of reducing crimes and making our communities even more safer."
SEE ALSO: AG Miyares leads coalition in support of Florida lawsuit against Biden immigration policy
The departments said this will help lead to more criminal convictions for those offenders committing multiple crimes.
Danville Chief Scott Booth also spoke about the importance of NIBIN in their work bringing down crime on the Southside.
"These things are so important in stopping gun violence in our communities," Booth explained. "Strong partnerships, effective use of technology and resources, and developing actionable intelligence to identify violent offenders early in an investigation. That's why technology such as NIBIN, ballistic imaging is so important to investigations. It's so important to keeping our communities safe and reducing gun violence."
Booth said this technology has not been easily accessible until now, but with the goal now being to incorporate it statewide, said it'll lead to more convictions and safer streets across the Commonwealth.
Chief Booth said that this technology will be coming to the Danville Police Department in late summer, or early fall.
He added that they're excited to get this in-house to better handle gun crime in the River City.
