I just read a press release from the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police (ACCP) summing up the program at their recent conference in Bermuda the theme of which was focused on Police and Public Partnerships: Prevention, Intervention and Enforcement Strategies to Tackle Gang and Youth Violence.

The three day INTERPOL Firearm Forensics Symposium for 2013 (IFFS 2013) held in Montreal began with "Hits" on Monday May 14th and ended with "Hits" on Wednesday May 16th -IBIS "Hits" that is.

The Vinho Verde region of northern Portugal, hugs the Atlantic coastline between the Douro River to the south and the Minho River to the north – where it shares a border with Spain. This unique agricultural region was terrorized for months by a gang of armed and violent criminals. Vinho Verde means green or young wine - meant to be consumed within a year of bottling. It would take much longer than that, however, to solve the nine Vinho Verde carjackings involving grand larceny, robbery, assault, and murder. It would take a joining of people, processes and technology: a car stop by police in a suburb of Spain four years later, a single and seemingly insignificant cartridge case, two visionary forensic experts and an innovative ballistics data sharing program at INTERPOL called IBIN.   

This is a question that many believe is no longer subject to debate.

Robert F. Kennedy once said: Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves – every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on.

In an exemplary move to stop armed criminals, law enforcers in Palm Beach County came together in a workshop last week to try to expand and embed these crime gun protocols across their county.

As the New Year approaches, I thought it would be interesting to look back over the last twelve months and take stock of what went on in the microcosm of forensic ballistics and crime solving.

On November 8, 2012, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called for expanded global action aimed at Wildlife Trafficking at the Partnership Meeting on Wildlife Trafficking at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C.

In the late 90’s Duke University Professor Philip Cook and Georgetown University Professor Jens Ludwig estimated that, in the United States, the national, social cost of crimes in which the victim is shot and injured with a firearm is nearly $100 billion dollars. (Philip J. Cook, and Jens Ludwig, Gun Violence: The Real Costs)

Ludwig observed that a reduction of the costs of violent crime can be attained by investing in certain targeted crime-fighting initiatives such as:

The fight against the criminal use of firearms is not an easy one. As many readers of this blog know, the role ballistics identification plays in this fight requires processes that agencies can adhere to, personnel to get the job done, and of course, technology that is up to the task.