BALTIMORE (AP) – Federal officials are lending Baltimore a gun-tracing van to help combat the rising homicide rate in the city.

The Baltimore Sun reports that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Baltimore Field Division will begin deploying the agency’s mobile National Integrated Ballistics Information Network on Tuesday. The van will be available for periods of time throughout the summer.

Daniel Board Jr., the ATF Baltimore Field Division special agent in charge, told The Baltimore Sun that the gun-tracing technology and the national database it connects to is a “critical piece to solving and preventing gun violence in Baltimore. It will be a tremendous asset to Baltimore by supporting a timely and comprehensive collection of firearm-related evidence at crime scenes, which in turn will help us reduce and prevent violent crime.”

Violent crime in Baltimore has reached record-setting levels. So far this year, Baltimore has recorded 108 homicides, the highest number of killings in the first fourth months of any year since 1993.

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