The San Antonio Police Department is again turning to technology to try to deal with the city's perplexing spike in gun violence, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The City has received a little more than $200,000 in a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to participate in what is called the National Integrated Ballistic Network Network.
The grant will be accepted at next week's City Council meeting.
The NIBIN allows police agencies nationwide to be able to use the latest technology to examine bullets found at shooting scenes to compare them with other firearms evidence in hopes of 'reducing firearms violence through aggressive targeting, investigation, and prosecution of shooters and their sources of crime guns.'
The SAPD stresses that nothing in NIBIN will be used to target legitimate, law abiding gun owners.
The program limits its use to 'firearms taken into law enforcement custody, guns obtained through gun buy back programs, property damage crimes involving firearms, guns that were used in violent crimes, found or abandoned firearms, and guns used in domestic disturbances.
The SAPD has been struggling to deal with the spike in violent crimes which has emerged in certain neighborhoods.
It marks the second time SAPD has tried to use technology to deal with gun violence. Last year the city invested in a program called 'Shot Spotter,' which used audio technology to spot shootings by listening to the sound of gunfire, and then immediately notifying the police. That program was discontinued because it resulted in very few arrests.