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Asheville to seek DOJ funding to expand gun-forensics capacity
Summary
City staff will ask council to authorize a Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance grant application to expand in-house ballistics, fingerprint and gunshot-residue processing, which officials say would cut lab lead times and produce court-ready evidence faster.
Asheville officials said the city will seek federal funding to expand local forensic capabilities tied to its anti–gun-crime initiative.
Interim Police Chief Jackie Stepp told the council briefing on March 5 that a Bureau of Justice Assistance grant would allow the police department to speed ballistics processing, improve latent-fingerprint detection, and perform more rapid gunshot-residue and bodily-fluid analyses in-house. "It allows us to advance our ballistics processing…to reduce our lead times and expand our ability to send cold-case evidence to the lab," Stepp said. She added the grant would fund equipment such as a fingerprint scanner and a "fusing chamber" so fingerprint work can be done locally rather than repeatedly sent out to a state lab.
City staff characterized the proposal as part of the city's broader anti–gun-crime initiative and will present a resolution authorizing a formal application on the March 10 council agenda. Assistant City Manager Jade Dundis introduced the item as a resolution to apply for Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance funding for a local gun-intelligence/investigative initiative.
Council members sought clarity on whether the forensics upgrades would be paired with acoustic‑detection tools such as ShotSpotter. Stepp said the city had explored ShotSpotter previously but concluded the technology was costly and had reliability concerns; she did not recommend adopting it at this time. "We explored it a couple of years ago…it was far too expensive and the reports from other agencies were not reliable," Stepp said. A council member responding to Stepp added they were "glad to hear that we're not" moving forward with ShotSpotter at present.
If council authorizes the application, staff said the grant would be used to purchase the described forensics equipment and accelerate turnaround for evidence needed in prosecutions. The briefing did not include estimated grant amounts or a project budget; those details will be provided with the formal resolution on the March 10 agenda.
