Bucks County District Attorney Jennifer Schorn showed off her office’s new, fully-operational ballistics and firearms laboratory.
The new facility, which is housed at the district attorney’s office’s warehouse in Bristol Township, gives prosecutors and detectives an in-house examination of firearms evidence that previously required sending to outside agencies, which had led to delays of investigations by weeks.
“It means that our expert now has the tools at his disposal to immediately examine either evidence recovered from crime scenes or evidence from a firearm and turn that investigative material around within hours if the need arises,” Schorn said.
Detective Greg Welsh, the office’s firearms examiner with over 17 years of experience, leads the laboratory operations.
“Now that we are self-contained, I can do everything that I did there without going to other labs using their equipment and their facilities,” Welsh explained. “If you needed answers immediately, I can go and start working on it as soon as the evidence is submitted and give the primary detective the answers that he was inquiring about.”
The laboratory includes a firing tank for test-firing weapons. The firing tank lets investigators compare ballistic evidence from crime scenes with test-fired ammunition to determine if a specific firearm was used in a crime, Welsh said.
The capability is enhanced through the lab’s connection to the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN), which allows evidence analyzed in Bucks County to be compared with ballistic evidence from crimes across the country.
“Any evidence analyzed by Detective Welsh can be submitted to the NIBIN terminal and that evidence is immediately analyzed,” Schorn said. “It’s not only solving cases here in Bucks County and our surrounding counties, but it helps solve cases in surrounding states.”
Schorn said the first submissions entered by Bucks County Detectives, who are part of the district attorney’s office, into NIBIN connected to two violent crimes in New York, including a homicide.
“This is a game changer as it relates to combating gun violence in our community and our surrounding communities,” Schorn said.
Welsh, who previously worked in Philadelphia’s firearms identification unit, works out of the lab. He carries out the analytical work and serves as the expert witness in court cases requiring ballistic evidence.
“As soon as you give me the evidence, I examine it, identify everything, create a report that’s then submitted to the investigators, the DAs. And when it is time for court, I can testify to that report,” Welsh said.
While Welsh is the sole firearms examiner for the county, he collaborates with examiners from surrounding counties for peer review to ensure accuracy in findings.
Bucks County Commissioner Chairperson Bob Harvie expressed the county’s commitment to supporting the laboratory.
“The commissioners are thrilled to bring this important program to Bucks County,” Harvie said. “We have continuing obligations going forward to keeping this as current as we can make it, functional, and certainly supporting Detective Welsh and all the other detectives here as they investigate any gun crimes.”
The laboratory’s establishment was made possible through a grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, with the county commissioners pledging continued funding after the grant expires.
Bucks County joins a small group of Pennsylvania counties with in-house ballistics capabilities.
According to Schorn, only about 10 percent of counties in the commonwealth have their own expert and in-house lab, including Philadelphia, Montgomery, Chester, Delaware, and Allegheny counties.
Previously, Bucks County relied on Montgomery County and other outside agencies for ballistics analysis, which could delay investigations and prosecutions.
“Every one of us who has handled a homicide case has had to beg that favor in the past from Montgomery County,” Schorn said. “Sometimes it was the difference between the perpetrator being out on the street versus being arrested because the critical direct evidence we needed needed to be analyzed.”
The laboratory is part of a broader push that includes a new gun task force established by the district attorney’s office.
The task force, which is funded through the grant, consists of county and municipal detectives focused on investigating gun crimes throughout the county.
“Our detectives that we have working out of our office are not just working cases that our office generates. They’re assisting all of the municipal police departments in Bucks County to gather intelligence, develop leads and actionable leads to identify the perpetrators,” Schorn explained.
The task force is addressing emerging trends in gun crimes, including the use of “switches” that convert handguns into fully automatic weapons, the district attorney said.
Steve Doerner, the chief administrator for the district attorney’s office, explained that the task force has worked to not only quickly react to crimes involving guns, but to be more proactive, including keeping track of suspicious purchase activity.
“We’ve developed a lot of relationships with our local firearms dealers,” Doerner said. “One of the main focuses of the Gun Violence Task Force right now is straw purchase investigations.”
Officials hope the new laboratory will not only help solve crimes but also serve as a deterrent.
“Once the bad guys know that you can trace their guns a lot faster, maybe they don’t come to Bucks with the guns,” Harvie said.
Schorn agreed.
“We’re hoping it’s a deterrent. But if it’s not, we’re confident we’re going to solve the case,” she said.
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