HIGH POINT, N.C. — The city of High Point is taking new steps to end gun violence.
The police department is teaming up with the federal government to track guns used in crimes.
Twenty-one law enforcement agencies will get to use the mobile technology.
It's called a NIBIN unit. It's used to better help connect guns and shooters to the crimes they commit.
Who is the shooter and how did they get a firearm? Those are two questions investigators hope the mobile unit will help answer by taking a closer look at shell casings.
"We're able to enter these shell casings and get the results back in a timely fashion maybe 24 to 48 hours that is unprecedented," said High Point Police Chief Travis Stroud.
The ATF officials say the unit can work in one of two ways. Deputies can collect shell casings found at a crime scene or test firearms found at a crime scene and put those casings into the system.
"We enter it into what's called an acquisition. What that acquisition is is it scans the eye-room of that casing and the uniqueness of that casing and an image is displayed. That image and its characteristics are unique. Every image is as unique as a fingerprint," said Jason Walsh, an ATF resident agent in charge.
Law enforcement agencies in Guilford, Randolph and Davidson counties have access to the unit this week. Next week, it will head to Alamance County.
"Their problem people are our problem folks and those guns travel with them. So, when we partner with them as the way we've done here with not only our local agencies but our federal partners it makes our network so much wider. It's harder for criminals to slip through that because we are starting to work together now," said Stroud.
The mobile unit will be available in the Triad until next Friday. ATF officials say they'll likely test more than 600 firearms, over the course of 2 weeks.