Firearms - Forensic Data Science Laboratory

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Selected Publications

Basu N., Bolton-King R.S., Morrison G.S. (2022). Forensic comparison of fired cartridge cases: Feature-extraction methods for feature-based calculation of likelihood ratios. Forensic Science International: Synergy, 5, 100272.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fsisyn.2022.100272

Software

– E³ Fired Cartridge Case Comparison System (version 2022-06-06a)

Software described in Basu et al. (2022).

Developed by Dr Nabanita Basu

Compares performance of multiple feature-extraction methods.

Uses relatively parsimonious statistical models to calculate likelihood ratios.

E3 Fired Cartridge Case Comparison System 2022-06-06a.zip

E³ Database of 3D Images of Fired Cartridge Cases (release 1)

– Description

This is a database of 3D images of the bases of 9 mm diameter centre-fire Luger-type cartridge cases with brass primer cups fired from semi-automatic pistols with hemispherical firing pins and parallel breech-face marks.

Fired cartridge cases were supplied by operational forensic laboratories, law-enforcement agencies, military, and private individuals in Barbados, Canada, France, Germany, UK, and USA.

3D surface topography was digitally captured using Evofinder^® (software version 6.6.1.17), and exported in x3p format.

10 cartridge cases were fired from each firearm.

Release 1 of the database includes cartridge cases fired from 297 firearms.

– Acknowledgements

The collection of this database was supported by Research England’s Expanding Excellence in England Fund as part of funding for the Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics 2019–2023.

Thanks to Dr Michael Derenovskiy and his colleagues at ScannBI Technology Europe GmbH for the loan of the Evofinder^® imaging system.

Collection of the database was coordinated by Dr Rachel S Bolton-King.

Thanks to the organizations and individuals who donated the fired cartridge cases. To maintain their anonymity, we do not thank them by name.

Thanks to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for agreeing to distrubute the database.

– Download

The database is available from the NIST Ballistics Toolmark Research Database (NBTRD).

Project Team

Laboratory members:

– Nabanita Basu

– Rachel S Bolton-King

– Geoffrey Stewart Morrison

Links

– The FBI’s Misinformation Campaign on Firearms-toolmark Testimony

2021-12-25 Blog post by David Kaye.

– State v. Ghigliotti, Computer-assisted Bullet Matching, and the ASB Standards

2022-06-11 Blog post by David Kaye.