America has long been in the midst of a gun violence crisis, and the speed with which law enforcement can investigate and solve gun crimes has not kept pace. Research from Every Town for Gun Safety shows that over 300 people are shot every day in the United States, and over 45,000 fall victim to firearm-related deaths annually. Yet, one of the most critical tools in an investigation—ballistics analysis—still operates on timelines better suited to the 1990s than today’s AI age.
Investigators often wait weeks, sometimes months, for results from centralized labs. Meanwhile, suspects disappear, leads dry up, and cases go cold. According to the Marshall Project, homicide clearance rates have dipped below 50% in recent years. Meanwhile, these centralized labs have accumulated large volumes of shell casings that have gone untested due to backlogs and bottlenecks.
This is the problem that AI startup Revlen is actively trying to solve: to bring ballistics testing out of the lab and into the field. Its flagship product, ShotOptix, is a handheld ballistics scanner the size of a coffee cup, which officers can use to generate AI-driven analysis in minutes.
“We’re giving officers actionable intelligence while they’re still at the scene,” said Brad Davis, CEO of Revelen. “When you can identify that a casing found at a homicide matches a previous shooting from two blocks away—before the suspect has a chance to flee—it reshapes the way an investigation develops.”
Bringing Ballistic Analysis into the 21st Century
Ballistic evidence plays a pivotal role in firearm investigations. Every gun leaves behind a unique set of microscopic toolmarks on a shell casing—essentially a ballistic fingerprint. But until recently, making a match meant shipping casings to a regional crime lab, waiting for manual review, and relying on legacy systems like the Integrated Ballistic Identification System (IBIS)—the core technology behind the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN), which dates back to the 1990s.
“The current ballistics testing system was built for a different era,” said Davis. “By leveraging the speed and accuracy of AI-driven analysis, we’re putting 21st-century tools into the hands of patrol officers, not just crime labs.”
Revelen’s system compresses what typically takes months in a lab into minutes at a crime scene. It starts with a handheld device called ShotOptix, which allows officers to scan shell casings in 3D with high-resolution detail. Once the scan is complete, the image is uploaded to Revelen’s Rapid Casing Analysis solution, where machine learning algorithms analyze the microscopic toolmarks left by the firearm.
If a match exists—whether from another case in the same city or across state lines—the AI flags it immediately, that data is then funneled into Fusion, Revelen’s investigative software, which layers in additional intelligence like license plate reads, cell tower pings, and background databases to help detectives identify potential suspects in near real time.
“We do more than simply telling you that casing A matches casing B,” Davis explained. “We’re giving investigators the entire picture—this shooter used the same gun in a prior robbery, they were seen on camera, their car left the scene five minutes later, they’re linked to these other crimes, and here’s their last known address.”
A Real-Time Revolution
That kind of real-time insight is already proving transformative in agencies like the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office, which is currently deploying Revelen’s solution across 11 field stations.
It’s part of a broader wave of AI innovation accelerating investigations across the criminal justice system. Companies like Clearview AI have made headlines for their facial recognition tools used by police, while SoundThinking (formerly ShotSpotter) utilizes acoustic AI to detect gunfire in real-time. What sets Revelen apart is its focus on portable, physical evidence collection and the ability to match ballistics across jurisdictions without requiring officers to ship evidence or wait in line.
The company was founded in 2019 by Robert Poole, a retired ATF agent who spent decades dealing with the limitations of current forensic systems. It has attracted backing from heavyweight investors, including Gary Lauder of Lauder Partners and Michael Fertik of Heroic Ventures.
The company is also partnered with Microsoft to integrate with Azure Government Cloud, allowing agencies to deploy Revelen’s AI platform securely within federal compliance standards.
Changing the Clearance Game
As police departments grapple with staffing shortages, political scrutiny, and surging caseloads, demand for more efficient investigative tools is growing. Revelen estimates there are currently only about 300 legacy scanning machines in the country, tasked with serving over 18,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide.
“Solving gun crimes shouldn’t depend on whether you’re in a major city or a rural county,” Davis said. “We’re here to make sure that the moment a casing hits the ground, there’s a chance to close the case—before the trail goes cold. AI-driven tech like ours becomes the great equalizer, providing any department with the ability to speed up their analysis, right at the scene. ”
The story may also mark the beginning of a broader trend: the rise of AI-native public safety startups tackling deeply entrenched infrastructure problems with scalable, field-first solutions.
“When we talk about AI transforming society, people think of finance, healthcare, or chatbots,” Davis said. “But the frontlines of public safety need AI just as urgently. These aren’t abstract problems—these are lives, communities, and real investigations hanging in the balance.”
