The Drugfire system helps the firearms examiner make more comparisons in an efficient manner. The Drugfire system helps to quickly identify candidates for this final comparison. Within the court system, testimony from the examiner using the standard accepted practices of ballistics microscope comparison is still the norm. These bottlenecks were minimized and the user satisfaction with the system increased. The FBI pays for the Drugfire software, future software upgrades, installation, training, and user support.
Crime laboratories pay for the computer hardware, maintenance, and monthly telephone line charges.
A suspect was later identified and a firearm recovered from the suspect's home. The system has linked over 800 pairs of shooting investigations nationwide since its inception in 1992. Cases that had previously been seen as unrelated were linked to each other or to firearms taken from suspects in unrelated arrests. Using the previous manual method to make random comparisons usually generated only about six linkages in a year. There have been instances where the law enforcement agency has received a tip that two cases were related.