Mobile shooting platform rolled out by FDLE in hopes of cutting down on firearm processing times
TAMPA, Fla. - The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is bringing more tools to investigators’ fingertips.
FDLE rolled out a mobile shooting platform, which will help process firearms immediately on a scene or at a law enforcement agency.
"They can process five, 10, 15 firearms right there on scene, send those casings over the gun," FDLE’s Assistant Special Agent in Charge Brannon Sheely said. "Never has to change hands. We have the casings to enter into the machine."
READ: Man pleads guilty for killing three in-laws in Tarpon Springs nearly a year after murdering ex-wife
Sheely said the mobile shooting platform is the first of its kind in Florida, and they can bring it to agencies around the state.
When a firearm is processed in an investigation, Sheely said they look for fingerprints and characteristics on each cartridge casing.
"We're able to take this out, have that agency fire that firearm and retrieve the casing, because that's what we're going to examine," he said.
He said it’s the first phase of a project that will mobilize more tools for law enforcement. This cuts down on the first main step to processing a firearm, and speeds up the overall investigation.
VIDEO: Woman accused of pilfering packages from Polk County porch planned on re-gifting items, deputies say
"Before, what they had to do was package it, send that firearm over to our lab, and then our folks would have to unpack it or take it out of the package, process that by shooting it, retrieving the casing and then repackage it to send it back," Sheely said.
Sheely said an officer can safely shoot the firearm into the mobile shooting platform to retrieve the casing, then send the casings off to the lab for different testing.
"Then, ATF will come back with any correlation that it has," he said. "And that could tie it from a crime here locally, out to a crime in state, down the road, possibly across state lines."
This could ultimately help investigators link them back to suspects and make an arrest in a case.
"So if you look at a crime scene where maybe guns were left behind, or if you look at an area where they've had problems with gang violence, if they were doing search warrants on a day, and they hit multiple locations, and they were able to retrieve ten guns, we could have this mobile shooting platform in the parking lot," Sheely said.
If investigators come across a firearm with empty chambers, they can still process it with the mobile shooting platform.
"We will have the bullets right there on scene," Sheely said. "We can put a like-style bullet into that gun, we can press that trigger, and it's still going to demonstrate those unique characteristics that that gun puts on that casing."
In the second phase of FDLE’s project, another tool will go mobile. Sheely said their BrassTrax machine will also be able to go to law enforcement agencies and crime scenes, which will start processing bullet casings on scene.
"If an unfortunate thing, an Ybor shooting, like recently happened, or the Pulse event, something where there are multiple casings that are left behind, we will be able to take that BrassTrax machine out there and start processing real time with our partners," he said.
This will continue to help cut down on the time it takes to process firearms and evidence. FDLE said the mobile shooting platform is expected to be heavily used around the state.
The agency expects phase two of the project to be rolled out in the next several months.