Firearms or arms - The State Office of Criminal Investigation keeps 1700 firearms on hand for reference purposes.
Hand over the shell found at the crime scene to the gun found at the suspected person's location? Could the criminal have tampered with the gun? The criminal police can sometimes answer such questions due to a tool known as the comparison weapon collection. Currently, the collection at the Thuringian State Criminal Police Office holds approximately 1,700 weapons and around 700 pieces of ammunition. These are utilized for studying weapon technology and aiding criminal investigations, as the LKA reported in response to an inquiry. They are also employed for training purposes.
The Thuringian collection is smaller than the average in a national perspective. Nonetheless, the LKA can access larger collections indirectly via cooperation with other authorities. Whenever a new weapon or ammunition is incorporated into the collection, this is documented. For every exhibit, there exist the corresponding documents, it was added. As the police aren't subject to the weapons laws, the handling of this collection is regulated by edicts and orders.
Comparison weapon collections have recently gained significant attention following the May declaration of the Interior Ministry of Saxony-Anhalt, revealing flaws in the acceptance process of items like weapons or ammunition into the comparison collection at the state criminal police office there since 2019. In addition, it emerged that the LKA in Saxony-Anhalt had disposed of tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition right before an evaluation by the State Audit Office.
Responsibility for destroying weapons related to the collection rests not with the LKA itself in Thuringia, but with the Central Weapons Workshop of the State Police, as indicated by the State Police Directorate. There, no items from the comparison collection have been obliterated in the previous five years, according to their report. The Central Weapons Workshop disposes of weapons, ammunition, and ammunition components solely after they have been evaluated by the LKA but determined unfit for the comparison collection, according to them.
