Berks County DA’s Office Uses Funding to Construct Ballistic Firearms Lab

from Berks County District Attorney’s Office

In January 2023, the Berks County District Attorney’s Office, on behalf of the Berks County Commissioners, was awarded $552,341.00 by the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) to enhance efforts to investigate and prosecute crimes involving firearms. These funds, offered to local law enforcement agencies and district attorneys’ offices, were made available under the Gun Violence Investigation & Prosecution (GVIP) Grant Program, established within PCCD as part of Act 54 of 2022.

The Berks County District Attorney’s Office chose to pursue these funds to improve services provided by the Berks County District Attorney’s Crime Laboratory (BCDACL) with the vision of reducing gun violence in Berks County and beyond. This vision began in 2018, when the Berks County District Attorney’s Office took a major leap forward in tackling gun crime at the local level by adding the firearm examination discipline, including the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN), to our lab system. We continue to draw on opportunities such as this to make it even better.

The more efficiently firearm evidence is processed, the faster investigators can get straw purchasers, gun traffickers, and illicit weapons off the streets and into the court system, where they can ultimately be held accountable for their actions.

Our goals of the grant focused on two areas to greatly improve our ability to investigate and prosecute gun crimes: forensic personnel and firearm evidence analysis.

At the time of its inception, the Berks County District Attorney’s Crime Laboratory (BCDACL) was staffed with one full-time firearms examiner, as well as an Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) contracted NIBIN technician. From day one, our firearms examination lab has been in great demand for its specialized services, receiving nearly 700 requests for firearm evidence analysis and nearly 4,000 requests for NIBIN services. To ensure we can continue providing timely, quality services, the Gun Violence Investigation and Prosecution Grant has funded a second part-time firearms examiner since the beginning of 2023. This additional support has also allowed us to eliminate a backlog of over 70 firearms cases that were awaiting forensic analysis just under two years ago. Today, new firearm evidence submitted to our crime lab is addressed almost immediately.

While qualified examiners are necessary to complete the meticulous examinations of firearm evidence, this cannot be accomplished without providing them with the best tools and facilities. Our second focus of the Gun Violence Investigation and Prosecution Grant was the construction of a self-contained firearm discharge laboratory.

One of the requirements of a complete ballistic laboratory is the inclusion of a controlled setting where firearms can be safely discharged. This allows for further testing and analysis of firearm evidence and the recovery of evidence created as a result of said discharge. Due to the design and space limitations of our current crime lab, a location to accomplish this within the confines of our facility was not possible at the onset of our firearms examination program. Prior to the addition of our firearm discharge laboratory, our examiners were required to travel to an off-site gun range to accomplish this task.

The newly constructed BCDACL firearms discharge laboratory is a 40-foot modified shipping container with a 3/8-inch AR500 steel ballistic shell. Features include a HEPA-Filtered HVAC system, LED lighting, a workbench, sink, shelving, ballistic door, a range-in-use light, emergency exit and power loss lighting, acoustic insulation, and a bullet recovery tank. It is also equipped with a computer and telephone so examiners can have immediate access to case information through our Lab Information Management System and a more reliable method of communication. Funding for this project also included electrical connections and the installation of a concrete slab at the site of the Berks County Agricultural Center.

The expected impact of this project is to improve the analysis of ballistic evidence, more effective investigations, and continued successful prosecution of gun crimes involving firearms.

The BCDACL is one of only five accredited crime labs in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and serves as Berks County’s primary forensic resource for digital evidence, crime scene documentation, evidence processing, fingerprint examinations, firearms examinations, and the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN). Our lab serves nearly 40 local law enforcement agencies throughout Berks County, as well as surrounding jurisdictions, including state and federal agencies.

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Source: bctv