United States

Ohio using federal COVID money to bolster crime lab capabilities

(The Center Square) – Ohio plans to use more than $10 million in federal COVID-19 relief to help speed up efforts to identify criminals responsible for deadly shootings and other incidents of gun violence.

Gov. Mike DeWine and Attorney General Dave Yost announced the plan as part of the new Ohio Ballistics Testing Initiative that will more than double the number of National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) units in the state.

“We must do more to hold accountable the small number of dangerous criminals who are responsible for most of the gun violence in our state – the convicted felons who have lost their right to possess firearms, yet they continue to carry and use guns to hurt and kill people,” DeWine said. “By more than doubling the number of NIBIN units in Ohio, we’ll give our local law enforcement partners easier access to this crime-solving technology to help develop investigative leads that result in arrests. With the help of this initiative, we are confident that more gunmen will be brought to justice, future shootings will be prevented, and lives will be saved.”

The Ohio Department of Public Safety’s Office of Criminal Justice Service will award $10.5 million from American Rescue Plan Act funds with the idea of providing more opportunities for law enforcement to submit firearm evidence for scientific analysis while decreasing the turnaround time for results.

More than $9 million of the grants will go to the attorney general’s office to put five new NIBIN units in state crime labs in London, Bowling Green and Richfield. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) also is expected to begin to use two transportable units to test evidence on-site in underserved areas of the state.

“Every bad guy’s gun tells a story – and that story leads back to the bad guy. But it takes science and data and technology to be able to read that story,” Yost said. “Today’s initiative means more bad guys in prison, where they belong, and fewer guns where they don’t.”

Ohio’s existing NIBIN units are at police departments and crime laboratories in Canton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and at BCI’s Richfield lab.

Disclaimer: This content is distributed by The Center Square

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