ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — A multi-agency effort is bringing a new piece of technology to the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.
With the BrassTrax cartridge case imaging system, investigators are now tracing shell casings and guns to criminal offenders in just hours.
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“We can match a shell casing to a particular gun at a crime scene. When we go to prosecute an individual, he’s either shot someone or killed someone. We can link that gun to that casing that was found at that scene and that’s powerful evidence,” says Florida State Attorney R.J. Larizza.
Larizza says the new technology comes out of the creation of Operation Young Guns, which targets the trend between young people and violent crimes.
The operation sparked partnerships with agencies around Northeast Florida and Circuit 7 - including with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.
With help from the State Attorney’s Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, St. Johns County Sheriff’s deputies are able to collect images of shell casings with the BrassTrax system to be sent off to a national database.
In minutes, the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) returns a report of the casings history back to local law enforcement partners - slashing the time it takes to investigate crimes and prosecute offenders.
The Sheriff’s Office said the technology has been integral to an ongoing investigation into a January 2024 drive-by shooting at an Airbnb in St. Augustine.
While no firearms were located, officials said more than 20 cartridge casings were recovered on the property. Forensic Analysts used NIBIN technology to process the cartridge casings from the scene.
“We were able to link those cartridge casings to at least three homicides in another jurisdiction and five shootings to include our attempted murders of other individuals we believe are linked to this group of people,” SJSO Major Crimes Corporal Mason Thompson said.
Sheriff Robert Hardwick is championing the new tech:
“Sometimes you get these violent crimes where you have a shooting, and it takes a year or so for all of this evidence to get processed. Now, we can do it today.”
To read more about Operation Young Guns, click here.
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