Columbia police seek more than $200k in seized proceeds to identify guns
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Columbia Police Department is requesting $208,934 in seized money to buy gun identification technology.
The request will be presented at the City Council meeting Monday.
If approved, CPD will have a direct connection to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives National Integrated Ballistic Information Network. The purchase would also help the CPD identify crime patterns and in cases that involve gun trafficking.
Accoding to a city council memo from the CPD, every firearm has a unique set of markings that make the gun unique, when a gun is made, the manufacturing equipment etches microscopic markings onto the gun’s metal parts. These markings, called tool marks, are transferred to a bullet or cartridge case when the gun is fired and are like a fingerprint for each gun.
According to a memo from the City Council, the purchase is broken down into four items:
- BRASSTRAX Acquisition Station
- PAG800 Stereo Zoom Microscope
- Cartridge Case Training Kit
- Color printer
The acquisition station is the machine that captures and compares ballistic evidence through a database. When shell cases or firearms are collected as evidence, they will be entered into the machine for identification and photo rendering to provide information for future cases.
During the meeting in August, CPD Chief Jill Schlude said that without this machine, police currently have to send ballistic evidence to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for identification, prolonging the investigation process. According to a memo for the upcoming meeting, this technology will increase efficiency and shorten evidence turnaround time from two to three weeks to an average of 24 hours or less.
The money will come from the Asset Forfeiture Fund, which is part of the Asset Forfeiture Program, a federal program under the Department of Justice in which money made from seized assets in criminal cases is used to fund programs.
During a City Council meeting in August, CPD announced it had over $420,000 from sales of seized items. Later, CPD presented three ways the agency could use the funds and suggested new body cameras, community education classes on crime and the gun identification technology.
The department briefly stopped using the ATF's NIBIN system over fears it might violate the state's Second Amendment Preservation Act, but restarted use in 2021.
