IBIS
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The Integrated Ballistic Identification System (IBIS) is used to associate evidence in previously unsolved crimes. IBIS is a highly technical, computerized image analysis system that records striated images from bullets and cartridge cases and compares them to a national, and growing international, database of images.
Bullets and cartridge cases recovered from victims and crime scenes are placed into the system and comparisons are made when agencies submit confiscated suspect weapons to the laboratory for testing. The images from the test fires are compared against the entire database. These images can be compared in a very few seconds, an impossible task for a firearms examiner using conventional procedures. These images are correlated by the IBIS system and given a score as to a possible match. The results of this correlation are called High Confidence Candidates, or HCCs. The firearms examiner makes a final determination to a positive match which then becomes a Hit. When a Hit has occurred, the involved law enforcement agencies are notified and they can then take the appropriate investigative and legal actions. |