NEW BERN, N.C. (WNCT) – On Tuesday night, New Bern’s Board of Aldermen authorized the New Bern Police Department to join the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives gun violence tracking program.
The New Bern Police Department said the program will help them continue to keep the community safe and also address gun violence. The program will provide the police department access to data within the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network.
The goal of the program is to reduce violence with firearms, help identify shooters and sources of crime.
“Anytime we have a crime that involves a gun and evidence is left behind, we want to be able to identify very quickly who owned that gun, where that gun came from, was it used in a previous crime,” New Bern Chief of Police Patrick Gallagher said.
The network allows different agencies to share their own information, which helps follow crime across different jurisdictions.
“Sharing our information with other entities is great, but more importantly for us, it allows us real-time connection between our evidence and evidence that was located anywhere in the United States,” Gallagher said.
Gallagher said more information could lead to more cases being solved.
“The faster we can identify the perpetrator in that particular crime that we’re investigating, the more likely we will not have a follow-up crime with that same individual or at least with that same weapon,” Gallagher said.
Gallagher also said the department plans to begin use of the program within the next several weeks.
