United States
Automated Firearms Identification has its roots in the United States, the country with the highest per capita firearms ownership. In 1993, the Federal Bureau of Investigation commissioned Mnemonics Systems Inc. to develop Drugfire, which enabled law enforcement agencies to capture images of cartridge casings into computers, and automate the process of comparing a suspect cartridge against the database. Drugfire was later upgraded to handle bullet imaging as well.
Also in 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms established its own automated ballistics identification system. Instead of having a custom-made system like the FBI however, ATF opted to build their network on a platform developed by Forensic Technology WAI Inc., a private Canadian company. At the time, the FTI platform was named Bulletproof, and imaged only bullets. It was later upgraded to handle cartridge casings as well, and was then subsequently renamed as the Integrated Ballistics Identification System (IBIS).
From 1993 to 1998, the United States had two automated ballistics identification systems in place: Drugfire, which was under the FBI, and IBIS, under the ATF. Although there were attempts to interconnect the two systems under the National Integrated Ballistic Identification Network (NIBIN), the FBI and ATF finally decided in 1999 to phase out Drugfire, and standardize NIBIN on the IBIS platform. This decision was arrived at after a thorough joint FBI-ATF evaluation revealed the superiority of IBIS over the other system.
The adoption of IBIS as the NIBIN standard propelled Forensic Technology as the world’s biggest manufacturer of automated ballistic identification systems. As of May, 2007 there are more than 500 IBIS systems installed in more than 35 countries worldwide.
Read more about this topic: Automated Firearms Identification
Famous quotes related to united states:
“Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada are the horns, the head, the neck, the shins, and the hoof of the ox, and the United States are the ribs, the sirloin, the kidneys, and the rest of the body.”
—William Cobbett (1762–1835)
“You are, I am sure, aware that genuine popular support in the United States is required to carry out any Government policy, foreign or domestic. The American people make up their own minds and no governmental action can change it.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941Ma date that will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“In the United States there is more space where nobody is is than where anybody is.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Of all the nations in the world, the United States was built in nobody’s image. It was the land of the unexpected, of unbounded hope, of ideals, of quest for an unknown perfection. It is all the more unfitting that we should offer ourselves in images. And all the more fitting that the images which we make wittingly or unwittingly to sell America to the world should come back to haunt and curse us.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)