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:
“Falling in love with a United States Senator is a splendid ordeal. One is nestled snugly into the bosom of power but also placed squarely in the hazardous path of exposure.”
—Barbara Howar (b. 1934)
“The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn’t need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder—in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“We can beat all Europe with United States soldiers. Give me a thousand Tennesseans, and I’ll whip any other thousand men on the globe!”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“When, in some obscure country town, the farmers come together to a special town meeting, to express their opinion on some subject which is vexing to the land, that, I think, is the true Congress, and the most respectable one that is ever assembled in the United States.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A sincere and steadfast co-operation in promoting such a reconstruction of our political system as would provide for the permanent liberty and happiness of the United States.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)