ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is advancing its technology to help police combat violence with a new system that can compare cartridge casings found by investigators and match them with other gun crimes within minutes.

Monroe Crime Analysis Center Director David Phelps said that the new software will help law enforcement around Monroe County and beyond.

“With this new technology, we can match one gun. even though we don’t have the gun. We can tell that gun is connected to multiple shooting,” Phelps said.

Micheal Curran is the resident agent in charge at the ATF field office in Rochester and said the speed of the new equipment is going to make solving gun crimes faster and potentially save lives.

“It’s a real game changer because when it’s months it doesn’t do law enforcement much good. Days definitely helps. But when it’s within hours, someone could potentially be in custody and you can get that information right away and that will be very helpful to our investigators,” Curran said.

It’s why Curran said that the partnership the ATF has forged with law enforcement in Rochester is a model for what his agency wants to bring to every community around the state of New York.

“People need to know that ATF is out there using our crime gun intelligence strategy, working day and night. It works in Rochester with our partnerships better than anywhere else in the state and we want to bring everyone else up to what we are doing here,” Curran said.