Identification Center

The Identification Center was established in 1971 as an attached organization of the National Research Institute of Police Science (NRIPS). The Center provides the physical and chemical analytical data for the identification that requires such high-performance analytical instruments as an electron probe X-ray microanalyzer, a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer, and a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer. The Center is responsible for firearm identification, counterfeit coin identification, and methamphetamine impurity profiling as follows.

Firearm Identification

Every fired bullet has a unique characteristic of the barrel of the firearm it was fired through, and every expended cartridge case has a unique characteristic of breech face or firing pin of the firearm. The Center maintains all the evidence bullets and/or cartridge cases of open criminal cases. When a handgun is seized by Prefectural police, test-fired bullets and cartridge cases are sent to the Center. They are examined to learn if that seized gun was used in an open criminal case, using the Ballistic Image Retrieval and Identification System.

Comparison microscope.

Examples of land impressions.

Counterfeit Coin Identification

Example of couterfeit coin; A pearl is not circular in shape.

The Directors of Police Headquarters send all counterfeit coins to the president of the NRIPS according to rules issued by the National Public Safety Commission. The Center examines them closely under a stereomicroscope and a comparison microscope, measures their conductivities, and analyzes them by an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer. They are then classified according to their characteristics.

Methamphetamine Impurity Profiling

Methamphetamine impurity profiling system

Methamphetamine is one of the most frequently abused drugs worldwide. Most of the illicit methamphetamine circulated in Japan is smuggled in from abroad. The Center is responsible for casework on methamphetamine impurity profiling, which provides useful information in criminal investigations aimed at identifying drug traffic routes, the sources of supply, and the relationship between seizures.