Targeting shooters

Editorial and photography: Jesse Wray-McCann

Despite being at the Ballistics Unit for 15 years, Senior Sergeant Stephen Farrar is still captivated by the work he and his colleagues do in helping solve gun crimes.

“To be able to link a particular fired bullet or fired case with a firearm, to the exclusion of all other firearms, fascinates me,” Sen Sgt Farrar said.

“I certainly understand how we do it, but still, the fact that it is even possible to do is pretty incredible.”

As the officer in charge of the Ballistics Unit, Sen Sgt Farrar leads a painstakingly professional team of 14 police officers and four Victorian Public Service employees.

The unit’s job is two-fold — to attend and examine firearm-related crime scenes, and to examine firearms and ammunition that may have been used in crimes.

The Ballistics Unit attends about 100 scenes and examines about 1100 firearm-related objects each year.

Every gun leaves its own unique “fingerprint” on the cartridge cases and bullets it fires, so it is the responsibility of the Ballistics Unit to meticulously uncover any connection between the two.

In the pursuit of this, Sen Sgt Farrar said the unit uses an arsenal of equipment and technology at its base at the Victoria Police Forensic Services Centre in Macleod.

“We’ve got some amazing gear,” Sen Sgt Farrar said.

Some of the stuff we’ve got is high-end, expensive technology.

Sen Sgt Stephen Farrar and Ldg Sen Const Tony Ruiz inspect a sawn-off shotgun.

To determine if a bullet or case is from the same weapon used in a shooting incident, some of the primary tools the team uses are powerful comparison microscopes.

These instruments allow an operator to place a bullet or case on one side and splice the image together with another bullet or case on the other side.

One of the comparison microscopes also allows them to link in with ballistics units from police forces in other states and compare fired ammunition components through a highdefinition interstate link.

“For instance, we’re able to link in with our counterparts in Queensland to see if a firearm used in Brisbane is the same as one used in Melbourne,” Sen Sgt Farrar said.

“At the end of that, if we think it’s a match, one of us still needs to travel and directly look at the items under a microscope to verify if it is a match or an elimination.”

Sgt Andrew Nisbet examines two shotgun shells on a comparison microscope.

And this is where the real strength of the unit lies, not just in its technology, but in the unparalleled skills and deep-seated knowledge of the examiners.

“Without the incredible training and hard work our guys do to achieve the level of expertise they have, all of that equipment would amount to nothing, it might as well be boat anchors,” Sen Sgt Farrar said.

Ldg Sen Const Christian Tomming fires into a water tank in order to collect undamaged bullets for comparison purposes.

To become a true ballistics expert is no small feat.

From start to finish, the unit’s staff can go through up to nine years of intensely thorough training and different qualification levels.

“That’s the sort of time that doctors spend learning and, like doctors, we continue to learn throughout the entirety of our careers as our science and technology evolve,” Sen Sgt Farrar said.

The laboratory proficiency training the staff must continue to complete throughout their careers is similarly gruelling.

But Sen Sgt Farrar said it is vital for them to be able to give reliable results to investigators and the courts, especially for major crimes.

“The most important work we do is investigating the death of a human,” he said.

“If we’re going to give evidence in the Supreme Court in relation to a homicide, we need to be pretty sure of ourselves and our science, and we need to have the required knowledge to make the right decisions.

There’s a fair bit at stake for the defendant and to get that wrong is just not something we want to entertain.

“I’d be horrified to think that we might send an investigation down the wrong path through an incorrect opinion, but I’m confident that doesn’t occur.”

Sen Sgt Farrar recalls once hearing that the Homicide Squad considers their responsibility to investigate the death of a fellow human being to be a reverent privilege.

“It was something that really resonated with me when I first heard that,” he said.

“So when I came to the Ballistics Unit and started contributing to those investigations in a meaningful way, it’s something I took very seriously and try to impart on to everyone else in the unit.”

While the Ballistics Unit is part of Victoria Police and aims to help detectives in their investigations, Sen Sgt Farrar said the unit’s highest allegiance is to the facts.

“Impartiality is a very big part of our game,” he said.

“Whenever we go to a shooting scene, we receive a briefing on what is understood to have taken place.

“But we are really about determining what took place in a shooting event based on the available evidence, so it’s not uncommon to establish that what an investigator thought may have taken place, didn’t actually take place.

“Applying a scientific approach helps us to remove the bias, discount people’s theories, look at the evidence, understand what it is telling us and report on that.”

Sen Const Lisa Pearson and Ldg Sen Const Steve Batten prepare seized firearms for destruction.

Their dogged pursuit for the truth carries into the court when they are called to give evidence.

“While we might be called by the prosecution, we’re on neither side,” Sen Sgt Farrar said.

“At the end of the day, we’re not there to help the prosecution or the defence, we’re there to assist the court.

“And that’s something that’s impressed upon our staff right from the beginning.”