Pollen on bullets: novel tracing technology

Pollen has been telling us about how and when people die for a while now. Microscopic and robust, its structure endures the ravages of time and brings us information from thousands of years ago. New findings from a group of British universities under the leadership of the University of Surrey, suggest that soon pollen may tell us key facts about homicides today, connecting victims of gun crime to the perpetrators, by becoming indelible ammunition tags.

Paul Sermon from the University of Surrey, led a team of researchers that included the Universities of Cranfield, Brunel and York and Brighton. He said the association of pollen with criminal investigation has a long heritage:

“We know that forensic scientists have long used pollen for tagging bank notes and other items. But then what we realized is that pollen itself is quite stable at the temperature that ammunition is fired...this opened an entirely new perspective for us.”

When a trigger is pulled, and explosion set off, the outside of cartridge coats is heated to around 90 to 100 degrees Celsius for a millisecond. Lilly pollen spores are quite stable at this temperature; they resist temperatures of up to 600 degrees Celsius for short periods.

The English research group has developed a nanotechnology process that provides the pollen with a titania, silica or zirconia overcoat. The pollen spores grouped in thousands have “astonishing adhesive properties” as described by Sermon, Their size and  stickiness makes them virtually unshakeable, difficult to remove.

“Ammunition manufacturers would then add a thin ceramic layer, which would provide an id. for batches of ammunition,” said Professor Sermon, “if manufacturers changed the overcoat composition regularly, you could tell when the ammunition was manufactured.”

The English researchers also developed a way to make sure ammunition tags also mark those handling ammunition. In a police investigation, officers who arrive at the scene where shots have been fired would be able to pick up empty cartridges telling them where the ammunition had been bought.

By creating a rougher cartridge surface, ammunition handlers will leave behind them skin cells with recoverable DNA.

 
“Essentially the coating would enhance the retention  of DNA from the person handling the cartridges. If you wear gloves, tags attach to the gloves, and then transfer on clothes.” Sermon explained that attempts to remove the tags are doomed to fail: “the pollen itself is 30 to 50 microns in size, you can have large numbers inside, it would be very difficult to remove them entirely, the process of removal would actually cover you.”

According to Prof. Sermon there is much interest for the technology. He describes the nanotechnology process that creates the overcoats as quite inexpensive, “but for ammunition tagging to be effective it would require international legislation”

There has been an international movement pressing for an international law on ammunition marking, led by France, Germany, Switzerland and Brazil, but it has yet to develop into fully fledged formal proposals or binding agreements in the ambit of the United Nations.

Other cutting edge technology is the microstamping process developed in California, in the United States. Microstamping means a tiny bar code identifying the gun is stamped on each bullet fired.  Allied to gun registration requirements, it would make direct connection between the purchaser of firearms and gun crimes. The technology, however, has yet to be implemented.

In South America, the Brazilian ammunitions manufacturer CBC, Companhia Brasileira de Cartuchos, uses laser engraving technology to imprint identification codes on the side of bullets. The procedure was adopted in compliance with a national gun control law enacted in 2003.

Every day, according to IANSA, the International Network on Small Arms, one thousand people die as a result of guns. The pollen tagging system is but one example of emerging technologies available for ammunition marking.  Perhaps the day is close when bullets, when they fly, do not vanish without a trace.  
 

From Comunidad Segura:

En la Mira - English
The Latin American Small Arms Watch (monthly)

Arms Control in Comunidad Segura

Read Further:

The United Nations: Internation Tracing Instrument

IANSA, The International Network on Small Arms

IANSA satistics on gun crime