PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — As gun violence continues to surge and the city is on record pace the most shootings ever recorded, Philadelphia police are on record pace for taking in the most crime guns off the streets.
Federal officials have brought in a new piece of equipment to help Philadelphia police analyze and investigate gun crimes, in hopes of solving more cases.
Philadelphia’s crime lab is trying to keep up with the number of guns they get in, according to Michael Garvey, who is director of Philadelphia’s forensics lab.
"2,152 crime guns recovered year to date so far," said Garvey. 10% of those guns are without a serial number. The city is on pace to collect another 4,000 guns.
"Early on, they were probably doing 10 to 15 test fires per day. Now they are probably doing 25 on a given day, maybe more. That’s pretty substantial because we are getting in every night, sometimes, 20 guns overnight, sometimes 60 guns overnight."
With that, the city’s crime lab needs help analyzing ballistics, writing reports and connecting crimes to the same guns.
The ATF has now rolled out a van, outfitted as a mini-ballistics lab, in the parking lot of the city lab to help.
It starts in the adjoining mini-trailer, with a test shot into a sand bag to collect the cartridge casing.
The cartridge is then analyzed under a specialized microscope-type camera to look for the signature markings of the gun, much like a finger print to each person.
"The computer searches all the other markings from all the other fire cartridge casings that we have recovered here in the city of Philadelphia, as well as the region," Garvey explained.
The analysts put together a report for the gun and find out if it matches to any other shootings or homicides. They then give it to the lead investigators, and eventually prosecutors.
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said they hope to not only solve the case, but prevent another shooting or death from happening.
"With quicker turnaround with the cases, the hope is that we can get dangerous individuals off the street sooner," said Outlaw.