Thunder Bay police have unveiled their new ballistics lab, which will allow for firearms testing and bullet recovery, as well as faster processing of firearms-related evidence.
Lab located at police headquarters, will allow for firearms testing and bullet recovery
Kris Ketonen · CBC News
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Thunder Bay police say their new ballistics lab will dramatically cut down on processing times for firearms-related evidence.
The lab was unveiled Wednesday. It's been built inside a container, which is located at Thunder Bay police headquarters on Balmoral Street.
Thunder Bay police forensic identification sergeant Ryan Doucette said the lab will allow police to compare "cases and projectiles that are either recovered at other shooting scenes or from firearms that are seized and recovered by police."
The lab includes a water tank, which allows police to fire those weapons, and recover the bullets and casings. They can then be sent to the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto, which can then analyze them so they can be compared to those collected at other shooting scenes.
Previously, Doucette said, police would have been required to send the firearm itself to the centre for test firing, and waited weeks or months for results.
However, now that police can conduct the test firings in Thunder Bay, "that allows us to get results ... within days," he said.
The lab was built by Thunder Bay company Stongbox, and funded through Ontario's Community Safety and Policing grant.
"It really enhances our ability to conduct firearms investigations a timely manner," deputy police chief Jeremy Pearson said. "In terms of reducing lag time and getting results, that's significant because we are [a] busy city, we're a busy police service."
"The quicker that we can address evidence from one incident, it allows us to focus on successive incidents and not to have lag time in informing our investigators with the results of the technical investigation so that the entire process can move forward."
Pearson says police have seen an increase in firearms-related incidents in the city over the last several years.
"We are processing a lot more exhibits of this nature, that may be connected to crime scenes elsewhere in the province," he said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kris Ketonen is a reporter with CBC Thunder Bay. Send story ideas to kris.ketonen@cbc.ca.
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