Santa Fe, NM (KKOB) – The New Mexico Department of Justice is opening regional hubs around the state to help police resolve gun related crimes faster. The New Mexico DOJ, announced the creation of the Crime Gun Intelligence Center which will help law enforcement scan bullet casings and guns recovered from crime scenes. The bullet casing scanners will now be available at the Intelligence center hubs in Farmington, Gallup, Roswell and Las Cruces, and the state will be manning the hubs and the scanners. These are the same scanners that have helped Albuquerque police make arrests for several violent gun crimes. Once a bullet casing is scanned, the results are uploaded to the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, or NIBIN database, to determine if the gun was used in another crime.
By creating the regional hubs, law enforcement in rural areas of the state, can go to the nearest location to do the scan. Currently, law enforcement have to come to Albuquerque to get the casings scanned. That process delays the results by up to 12 months.
