Firearm Identification System for Australian Police Services

The paper briefly describe the research for developing the next generation of optical and photonic techniques applied to cartridge cases and projectiles for the identification of firearms. The research explores a selection of surface profile measurement techniques to recognize and identify unique microscopic markings on the forensic ballistics specimens that have been produced by firearms, and to examine the feasibility of establishing a national online firearm identification database. A developed personal computer based prototype software application and a national distributed system through the Internet is discussed in details.