Gun tracker

Criminals don't sit still. They move from place to place, Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray s Cooperative police work among cities on the Route 222 corridor in recent years has helped track individual criminals and gangs, Gray said.And the guns they use, Gray said, also often don't stay in one place. New technology and cooperative efforts discussed at a conference this week in Baltimore can be used to track those guns on an even larger scale.Gray and mayors from 11 cities from New York to Annapolis met Wednesday and agreed to share ballistics information that could link guns to crimes used in different cities.A presentation to the mayors focused on shell casings from one handgun that showed it had been used in crimes in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, he said.A criminal caught with that gun could lead to multiple prosecutions against several individuals in several cities."It provides a wealth of information to law enforcement people," Gray said this morning.The meeting, organized by the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, included mayors from New York City, Baltimore and Annapolis, Md.; Newark and Trenton, N.J.; Dover and Wilmington, Del.; and Lancaster, Reading and York. Philadelphia's mayor sent an aide.
They agreed to establish a computer database for information collected from police along the Interstate 95 corridor and the surrounding areas. It will combine data from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with local police ballistics and interrogation information. The mayors hope to have the database in operation later this year.A fundamental part of the plan is new technology that can identify a firearm by markings left on shell casings. With matching marks, police can trace a firearm to crime scenes in different states even if the firearm itself has not been recovered."They said it's like a fingerprint. It's that unique," Gray said of a Newark police presentation on the marking identification technology."It seems to be a real tool that police can use to track illicit activity," he said.In a joint statement that came from the meeting, the mayors said it wouldn't cost much to develop the database and new personnel would not be needed to implement the program.Gray said the federal government should really be leading the interstate effort. He remains hopeful that the federal or state government will step in to cover the cost of acquiring the new technology for Lancaster police.A spokesman for the National Rifle Association commented after the meeting to the Associated Press that law enforcement already has more than enough tools to combat gun crimes and the project sounded more like a publicity stunt.