FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - The City of Fort Lauderdale has received a little high-tech help to combat gun violence.
City officials on Tuesday announced a new push in crime-fighting across Fort Lauderdale by creating a local Law Enforcement Crime Gun Intelligence Center.
Bullet fingerprinting was announced at a press conference as part of a new interagency team to fight gun violence.
The high-tech program will expand bullet and gun tracking across the city with a growing national database that leads to more successful crime-solving and prosecutions.
“The gun is fired. If it’s in our ShotSpotter footprint, it would notify us that there was a gunfire discharged within the city,” said Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Larry Scirotto. “We would respond in effort to, one, render aid, two, hold perpetrator accountable, and three, recover evidence.”
Back in April, a 6-year-old girl, a 16-year-old, and a man were shot at Tony’s Market. Detectives were able to gather evidence, and through a partnership with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and its Ballistic Information Network, police were able to match the bullets.
“In that shooting, we analyzed 148 shell casings,” said Scirotto. “Of those 148 shell casings, 14 of them were accounted to different shootings. That resulted in one arrest that our federal partners have taken for prosecution.”
Fort Lauderdale was chosen to receive a major federal three-year grant that allows the city to fund new coordination of this innovative program between FLPD, the State Attorney’s Office, the Broward Sheriff’s Office, ATF, FBI, and other local law enforcement agencies.
“Congressman Ted Deutch has secured for the City of Fort Lauderdale a $466,000 grant to launch the Local Law Enforcement Crime Gun Intelligence Center,” said Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis.
The new center, or CGIC, will have its own violent crime units, with close to 40 detectives working and investigating violent crimes in the city. They also created a new position.
“An intelligence analyst will focus solely on developing leads and trends related to gun crimes and associated offenders. Our goal is to ultimately reduce gun crimes in the neighborhoods, especially adjacent to the downtown [area], and this will happen over the next three years,” said Trantalis.
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