MACON, Ga. — The Bibb County Sheriff's Office crime lab now has access to a national ballistics database, which they say could lead to faster arrests.
Sheriff David Davis held a press conference Tuesday morning to announce they can now use the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network or NIBIN.
Davis says the 'cutting-edge' network allows the Bibb crime scene technicians to create and enter images of ballistics evidence, like shell casings, and search for possible matches across Central Georgia and the country.
He says it'll be useful in rounding up criminals who are more mobile and linking crimes that were seemingly unrelated at first.
"We have been able to link many crimes, and it's really been telling to me to show how a gun can be used in several different crimes, in different parts of town that you really wouldn't think about," Davis said in the press conference.
Access to the database was paid for by a Project Safe Neighborhoods grant of $200,000, according to Criminal Chief Michael T. Solis with the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Davis says they are only the second agency in the Middle District of Georgia to have this technology. He says the other is in Valdosta.
"It also fills in the gaps at the prosecution level by providing solid evidence for attorneys, both local DAs and U.S. attorneys, to build strong cases, and help to put the bad guys away for a long time," Davis said.
The network is run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and will help with stolen guns too.
Davis was given a plaque to commemorate the sheriff's office's first lead using NIBIN.
