Gun experts hired to help cut backlog
County crime lab has more than 500 pending gun cases to wade through
By Vic Ryckaert
January 2, 2007
Marion County's crime lab has ended a nine-month search for new firearms examiners, hiring two forensic scientists from the Illinois State Police who are expected to help it clear up a backlog in cases.
Michael Putzek and Michael Cooper will join the Indianapolis-Marion County Forensic Services Agency on Feb. 5, Director Michael Medler said.
"We look very forward to getting them on board," Medler said. "We will start knocking the backlog backwards, getting ahead of the game."
The lab has more than 500 pending gun cases to wade through. Meanwhile, there's a nationwide shortage of qualified firearms examiners, which Medler said made Marion County's search for candidates a challenge.
In August, Marion Superior Court issued an emergency order authorizing
the crime lab to hire two examiners and pay them up to $80,000 a year
each -- about $20,000 more than the typical salary.
Violent crime has risen across the country, and labs are seeing more
cases than ever involving guns. Specialists, such as Putzek and Cooper,
who peer into microscopes to match bullets to the guns that fired them,
are highly sought.
Putzek and Cooper are colleagues at the Southern Illinois Forensic Science Center in Carbondale. They say they are eager to move to Central Indiana and look forward to the new challenges of helping investigate the hundreds of gun cases Marion County sees each year.
"It looks like I'll have a chance to do a lot more training than
in Illinois," said Cooper, who has nine years of experience as
a firearms examiner. "It's a nice, fresh start. The family's excited
about it."
Both said they know Marion County's lab is much busier than the rural
area where they now work.
Marion County authorities investigated 153 homicides in Marion County
last year, more than 80 percent of which involved guns. The crime lab
had received more than 800 new gun cases by Oct. 31.
Putzek said he and Cooper are ready to get to work.
"Experience plays a lot into firearms investigation," said Putzek, who has 16 years' experience. "Seeing the different guns, seeing the different manufacturing processes. We're hoping to bring that knowledge to Marion County."
Two other local crime lab veterans are in the midst of a two-year training process to become firearms examiners, Medler said.
Tim Spears completed a school run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives last year and is doing supervised casework; Doug Boxler is training on the job.