Fired case law in MD killed by new Gov.

[wogpotter]

Finally this thing was a dodo from day one & now its dead as one.
I still want to know how there was no money for it when there was a $35.000 charge for every case submitted.

Where did the money go?

[CowTowner]

Where did the money go?

Administrative costs. Studies to verify the best way to implement. You know, standard government expenditures.

Glad to see this fall to the way side. Now if a few more would follow suit.

[wogpotter]

That's a lot of administration for something that consisted of dropping the sealed envelope in a 55-gal oil drum & ignoring it!

Since 2000 the totals have been:
304,548 rounds submitted, @ $35 per. that comes out to $10,659,180.00.

Now they're looking for funds to dispose of them.
Err, ummm. IT'S BRASS, SELL IT!

[JimPage]

Holy Smoke! Even New York dropped the fired case business a few years ago. Maryland if really slow to catch on.

[1-DAB]

link to story from few months ago:

http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/p...,4874803.story

one quote: "The state collects the bullets."

another: "As the firing pin hits the bullet,"

oh my.....umm...the bullet is long gone by the time the shell casing is sent to the state or left on the ground....

[Tom Servo]

The Maryland program is called MD-IBIS. It has been a failure. In fact, its failure was acknowledged by the director himself in 2004:

(…) one year later, the Maryland State Police Forensic Sciences Division reversed course, citing “the failure of the MD-IBIS to provide any meaningful hits.” The report found that the program “has not met expectations and does not aid in the Mission statement of the Department of State Police.” It recommended that the data collection be suspended and that MD-IBIS staff be transferred to the DNA database unit.

Honestly, I thought they'd dropped the program awhile back.

[wogpotter]

Nope, it was just "case collection", nothing more was done ever. Rumor has it that every barracks in the state has several 55-gallon drums of un-logged, never opened "official sealed envelopes" of the submitted cases.

The reason they never got any hits was because they never entered the data.

[1-DAB]

for sale: once fired brass, mixed manufacturers and mixed calibers.....

[kilimanjaro]

Since $35 was collected for a complete process of case origin and data logging, which sounds as if it was not done, you Marylanders should demand an audit and file claims for thousands of full or partial refunds. Your fees were earmarked legally for expenditures pursuant to the program, and nothing else.

You have legal standing if you paid the fee.

Complaints for waste, fraud, and abuse could be a good idea, too. When the pols realize they're going to spend lots of money defending failure, maybe they won't be so quick to enact stupid laws, next time around.

[gc70]

Originally Posted by kilimanjaro

When the pols realize they're going to spend lots of money defending failure, maybe they won't be so quick to enact stupid laws, next time around.

It is a rare politician who has any qualms about spending taxpayer money.

[kilimanjaro]

True enough, but they would rather spend it on their pet projects, not on dealing with blowback.

Up here we're looking at spending $100 to give low-income folks a $20 rebate on their $60 car tabs. The people who wrote the law are under scrutiny, and they don't like it. Do the same in Maryland. Make 'em sweat.

[jimpeel]

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

[skizzums]

I never heard of that law. it sounds like complete insanity.

since criminals use stolen guns more often than not, who is this law designed to burden? sounds like a silly law enacted just to further roadblock gun ownership, not actually make anyone safer.

it sounds like the 26 times the program has helped link guns to a crime, was after they had possession of the actual gun used and forensics were ran as any other police department does it. am I reading it wrong, or did the data base of logged cases NEVER actually help solve a crime?

[wogpotter]

Its a matter of record. Never, not even once.

[wogpotter]

Since $35 was collected for a complete process of case origin and data logging, which sounds as if it was not done, you Marylanders should demand an audit and file claims for thousands of full or partial refunds. . . . .maybe they won't be so quick to enact stupid laws, next time around.

You've never lived in MD have you?

[Dan F]

As a MD resident, I'm still amazed they actually repealed it... since when did they EVER admit to making a mistake (even by implication, as is the case here)? They usually just keep insisting "just a little more money will make it work".

Gaah. I gotta move.

[wogpotter]

Not to drift into politics here but the change of Governor was a major player in the decision.

[62coltnavy]

Md gets the message that these systems are expensive and useless. I am pretty sure that NY did as well, millions of dollars and no "hits" later. California though has doubled down. AG Harris declared in 2013that "microstamping" technology was generally available, and therefore all new pistols had to comply with the microstamp law enacted in 2007. [Now it turns out that her declaration is in jeopardy, as the law requires the case to be stamped in two places, but the "generally available" technology is not only experimental, it only stamps the "case" in one place--the primer. But that is a different story.]

So how is this microstamping law any different than anyone else's casing library? Theoretically it would be easier to identify spent casings, but there is the same old problem that most crime guns have been stolen--so knowing who was the original owner tells the police absolutely nothing (in most cases) that will assist them in identifying the shooter. Which means that California is doubling down on a program that cannot possibly work.

[wogpotter]

Md gets the message that these systems are expensive and useless.

As it was never implemented, but was charged for it was far from expensive to the state.
They took in literally millions of dollars to drop envelopes in big cans. That was it.