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Baltimore, NYC Agree To Create Gun Seizure Database

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime & Justice News

"Baltimore and New York will start sharing information

about illegal weapons they seize, creating a database

that gets around a congressionally imposed

restriction on information local departments can

obtain about guns seized outside their borders, the

Baltimore Sun reports. Federal law gives cities only

limited access to the national database that tracks

guns used in crimes. Mayors hope other cities along

the I-95 corridor will sign on, and by sharing the

information they will be able to spot trends in regional

gun trafficking that they say are invisible to them under

current system.

'This is the kind of system that the federal government

should be doing, but they aren't,' said New York Mayor

Michael Bloomberg. 'Cities are fighting crime in

isolation. Congress has a treasure trove of data and

we are not allowed to see it.' The mayors also will

share ballistic data and investigative information

including the price of weapons sold on the streets,

nicknames of known drug traffickers, and the

distances people are traveling to purchase illegal

weapons. Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon expects the

database to be in operation in the next several

months. Mike Campbell, a spokesman for the U.S.

bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives,

said once cities obtain federal information they can

share it with each other. ATF cannot tell a Baltimore

detective anything about the purchase of a gun found

in New York."

Baltimore Sun - http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001SsWgn0tYYJ2M7zGHmiZLnrCWFGjOt_sGvHudmWRJNtOOEOZArU59XlIx0Ru3Y43rRlhsBkBLZtOcv8P-fSux96IEaQ-re7oIXUbDBwz3tJ8tUb_aosuyb__6ROgkGzO8KEZKwtqdMbrVO4-ngdajAS8D_VRa--lw2ccVrRHdmz7qNKyKumSlA1_VaqPakF7pdw5QV3_NnxQWDE-fjhBK7w==

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on February 14, 2008 (boomark / email).