The Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) has expanded the role of the Firearms Investigative Analysis Section (FIAS) to support firearms-related investigations across the province.
In 2020, the WPS was among the first law enforcement agencies in Canada to use the Integrated Ballistic Identification System (IBIS) to process and analyze digital images of expended cartridge casings to generate real-time investigative leads.
In partnership with the RCMP, FIAS has access to the Canadian Integrated Ballistic Identification Network (CIBIN), a national database where these digital images are collected and stored. Using CIBIN, bullets and cartridge cases can be compared to unsolved crimes across the country and links to crime scenes can be made.
The ability to complete on-site CIBIN searches has reduced the WPS’s time to receive results from CIBIN searches from nearly a year to less than three days.
The WPS has developed over 200 CIBIN Leads since 2020, linking incidents both locally and across Canada.
FIAS will now conduct CIBIN searches of expended cartridge casings for all Manitoba police agencies, and provide timely, actionable leads to investigators to help move their investigations forward.
This is the first planned expansion of FIAS toward a full provincial crime gun lab to ensure law enforcement agencies have ready access to analytical and forensic information to target gun violence. The next phase of the expansion will see renovations within WPS Headquarters start later this year to allow additional equipment and members to be added to FIAS. At which time, firearms analysts will be available to analyze firearms and related evidence, and support investigations across the province. The final phase of the FIAS expansion will be the establishment of the firearms laboratory.
The expansion of FIAS is made possible with capital and annual operating funding from the Government of Manitoba.