MACON, Ga. — The Bibb County Sheriff's Office received some new technology Tuesday they said will help them solve more crimes faster. It's new ballistics tech for their crime laboratory.
The department will use the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network. The technology inspects shell casings and firearms and puts their information in a national database like the ones that exist for DNA or fingerprints.
It'll help investigators like Antonio Lewis-Ross in their investigations.
"We're looking for distinct marks and, basically, unique impressions each gun leaves on the back of these shell casings," Lewis Ross said.
Each firearm leaves its own tell, similar to a fingerprint. The new tech will be especially useful in situations where more than one gun is used at a crime scene.
"All this happens when a gun is fired and it's going to leave those impressions every single time," Lewis Ross said.
"It really puts us on par with the big metropolitan departments and helps us in this whole middle Georgia region to track firearms," said Sheriff David Davis.
Davis says before his department had to send their evidence to Atlanta or Savannah. Now, they can analyze right here at home and can help surrounding agencies as well.
"Somebody may use a gun here in Macon today, but they may also use that same gun in Warner Robins or Forsyth or somewhere else tomorrow, so if we can track it and track where it's been used, we can bring that violent criminal to justice," Davis said.
The department received a $200,000 Project Safe Neighborhoods grant to go to the sheriff's office's Project Safe Neighborhoods Task Force. They partnered with other agencies like the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Georgia, and the Macon Judicial Circuit.