VBPD goes high-tech to fight gun crimes

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — It's the room addition of all room additions.

In their new, $300,000 test fire room, police officers in Virginia Beach can now move a little closer to justice served, as they can perform firearms testing onsite for the first time in department history.

"A process that previously took hours or days or sometimes weeks has been reduced to about 30 minutes," said Dade Chisler, supervisor of Virginia Beach Police's forensic sciences unit.

When a gun is fired, it leaves unique marks on the cartridge. That ballistic fingerprint, of sorts, is then entered into NIBIN, or the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network to compare against other evidence to link crimes or identify guns.

Until recently, officers would gather weapons and fire them on a range in Nor