Law enforcement agencies across Ohio will now have digital access to the National Digital Ballistics Network database through the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI).

According to the office of Attorney General Dave Yost, BCI's crime laboratories in Bowling Green, London and Richfield recently added hardware connected to the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) and are able to accept crime guns and cartridge cases submitted by law enforcement.

"NIBIN is a proven, science-based technology that can help counter the plague of gun violence," Yost said. "This is a tool for all Ohio law enforcement agencies, from the smallest village with only a part-time chief to the largest agency in the state. BCI takes the evidence and processes it free of charge."

NIBIN is operated by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), makes 3D scans of cartridge cases and compares those to millions of other images in the database, thereby identifying links to previously unconnected gun crimes in Ohio and across the country.

The network recently expanded, adding five additional units, two in Bowling Green and London and one in Richfield, which previously housed the only NIBIN station, according to Yost's office.

This expanded access increases the networks effectiveness as a crime-fighting tool the more it expands.

"Think about DNA," Yost said. "As DNA technology grew and more and more agencies submitted profiles into the national CODIS database, solving crimes through DNA eventually became commonplace. NIBIN holds similar promise, only for guns."