Eighty-six people have been shot in Peoria this year. Now Peoria Police are using a tool that will help them solve more gun crime. The National Integrated Ballistic Information System has been in place for about 6-weeks.
Peoria Police Chief Jerry Mitchell says the technology allows law enforcement to examine the unique characteristics of shell casings and compare it to others stored in the national database.
“The value is that let’s say we don’t have suspect information on the shell casing we found in the middle of street but maybe there’s a shooting where we have a suspect or another shots fired where there is suspect identifiable. So now we tie those two together; start making a case.”
The IBIS machine in the Peoria Police Department will also be used by other Central Illinois communities. It’s one of six in the state. Two Peoria Police Officers are trained for it in addition to their other duties.
Peoria police have submitted about 35 shell casing with 6-8 hits. Senator Mark Kirk helped get the ATF-supported-machine to Peoria at no cost.