Critics: Cuomo plan would hurt crime-fighting

ALBANY -- Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's proposal to shut a state ballistics database that he says has been costly and has helped solve too few crimes has sparked a sharp debate among state legislators.

Cuomo's proposal got cheers from some Republicans who say New York's Combined Ballistic Identification System, or CoBIS, is a "waste of time, money and manpower." But it's drawn jeers from Democrats -- led by Assemb. Michelle Schimel (D-Great Neck) -- who said the move "is a step backwards" in fighting crime.

The state's ballistic database was designed to help identify guns used in crimes by comparing markings on expended casings with shell markings that gunsmiths and dealers must send to State Police for every firearm sold in the state. But it hasn't been utilized, the governor's office said.

"Against the ballistic information for thousands of weapons entered into the system since its inception, only a few matches have been made and no associated crimes have been solved," Morris Peters, a spokesman for the governor's budget office, said in an email. "Given the frequency of violent crimes being committed with firearms that are either reported stolen or were transported into the state illegally, CoBIS cannot be called an effective crime-fighting tool."

Republicans applauded the idea. Last year, the GOP-controlled Senate passed a bill to shut the database. Sen. Michael Nozzolio (R-Seneca Falls) said in memo that ballistics studies showed the tracking program was not worth the money or trouble.

"It's a failure and waste of taxpayers' money," added Sen. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), co-sponsor of the bill, which died in the Democrat-led Assembly.

Cuomo tucked his proposal to shutter the database in his 2012-13 state budget, unveiled Tuesday. He wants to replace it with participation in a national ballistics tracking system, the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network.

But Schimel said the national system is severely limited because it collects data only from weapons found at crime scenes. "With NIBIN," she said, referring to the national system, "you need to find the gun, not just the [spent] cartridge."

She wants to use the dispute to push for "microstamping" ammunition, which she says is more effective and won't cost the state because it doesn't require a database.

Microstamping involves the imprinting of a unique code on a cartridge when it is fired. Backers say police could retrieve a cartridge left at a crime scene, trace the marking to a specific gun and identify the person who bought the weapon. California has mandated microstamping.

"I've been disappointed with the results of CoBIS, too," Schimel said. "But CoBIS is like an eight-track tape and microstamping is like Blu-ray technology."

The Assembly passed a Schimel-backed microstamping bill last year; it has been bottled up in the Senate. Zeldin called the idea "well-intentioned" but said he opposed it.

"Microstamping is an unproven technology that can be easily defeated with household tools" to deface the mechanisms that stamp a cartridge, he said.