The NYPD doesn’t perform ballistic tests on guns turned in for cash or have them traced – destroying potential evidence and missing golden opportunities to learn how the weapons hit the city streets, The Post has learned.
The department’s guns-for-cash program netted nearly 1,400 guns during the first 11 months of this year. But those weapons are not tested by the NYPD’s ballistics lab to see if they match bullets fired during crimes, said NYPD spokesman Gary McCarthy.
“The guns recovered in the amnesty program are disposed of,” McCarthy said. “Everything else gets tested.”
The policy of not testing amnesty guns, which are handed in anonymously, was made to encourage people to turn them in, McCarthy said.
A veteran prosecutor worried that the policy might prompt wily criminals to turn in their murder weapons, claim the $100 and have the NYPD dispose of the evidence.
“It used to be leave the gun, take the cannoli,” the source said. “Now it’s take the cannoli and leave the gun with the cops.”
The NYPD’s policy on amnesty guns also prohibits cops from sending information on those weapons to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for tracing.
Tracing guns back to buyers and dealers has helped authorities prosecute numerous traffickers who hawked handguns they bought in Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Alabama, states where no background checks are required for buyers at gun shows.
But while the number of guns recovered hasn’t fallen in recent years, gun trace requests in New York City have dropped since 2000, when the city law enforcement authorities submitted 6,561 requests. In 2001, trace requests fell to 5,972. During the first 11 months of 2002, traces dipped further to 5,375 and hit a low of 4,695 for the same period this year. The drop in gun traces has the feds, who do not charge the city for tracing, concerned over lost investigative leads.
“We’re missing out on the leads they could produce,” said New York ATF chief William McMahon. The NYPD’s McCarthy said the policy of not testing or tracing amnesty guns would be reviewed.