Computer Forensics

What Does A Forensic Ballistics Expert Do?

If you are looking for a forensic ballistics career you can expect to be collecting, identifying, classifying and analysing related evidence involved in criminal investigations. Such evidence will involve close examination of firearms including any tool marks or other identifying marks found on the weapon, bullets and bullet fragments as well as looking at the bullet trajectory. Work may also involve fingerprints, fibres and blood found on the weapon or bullets itself. A forensic ballistics department will work closely with other areas of forensic science and law enforcement agencies.

One of the earliest instrumental uses of firearm identification that led to a successful case being brought to court occurred in London, England in 1835. A mold mark that is produced during the manufacturing process was identified on a discharged projectile ball, in addition, the paper patch seal that was used between the ball and gunpowder was matched to a newspaper found in the room of the culprit. Since those early days, forensic ballistics have become a lot more complicated.

Identifying a firearm is possible because of unique marks that can often be found on a weapon even if the serial number has been removed. These marks can be transferred to the bullets (breech marks) when the weapon is fired. Therefore, close investigation of the bullet itself is imperative to be able to match the bullet to the firearm. Marks are compared side-by-side under the microscope to eliminate or confirm any matches. Therefore, if law enforcement officers know that a particular firearm was used in an incident, they can also match that firearm to further incidents involving the same firearm. If they know who owns the weapon, it stands to reason that this will produce a viable lead in their investigations.

However, the firearm itself does not need to be recovered to obtain a match. As technology has rapidly moved forward with other areas of forensics, so it has with forensic ballistics. The FBI now has a specialist Firearms-Toolmarks Unit and have developed a fully automated and national database system known as 'Drugfire'. The database integrates information from cartridge cases, bullet analysis, shotshell and firearms libraries in one place. When someone enters a particular specimen into Drugfire and a match is found then this is flagged up.

If you are thinking about a career in forensic ballistics, don't expect to start out being well paid as you most certainly won't be! Depending on where you are and your experience, you can expect between $20,000 and $35,000 with a possibility of a 5/6% increase after 6 months. The wages start out quite low because after graduating, you will still have a lot of training to do before you reach a certain level of expertise and you are unlikely to be heavily involved in any really serious cases for some time.

The extended period of your training can take around two more years and will involve copious amounts of reading material related to law, firearms identification, wound ballistics, ammunition etc. You will also need to know how to handle evidence, safe firearm handling procedures including assembly and disassembly, and microscopy techniques. Additional courses will probably be required on analysing gunpowder residue and more specialist techniques. As with any forensics career, learning is ongoing as new techniques and machinery is developed.

You will become well versed in how guns and ammunition are manufactured, how to give expert testimony in court and attend many more lectures and seminars, just like being back in college! What you will get out of a career in forensic ballistics is a solid grounding in forensics itself and a specialist in all aspects of firearm use that a criminal can think of. It is your job to thoroughly investigate the evidence you have following set procedures and if necessary, to give clear and explicate evidence in court.

 

 

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