The Wayne State University Police Department not only focuses on the university’s security, but also supports research that advances law-enforcement weapons.
WSUPD supplies the College of Engineering’s associate professor Cynthia Bir with equipment needed for her ballistic research. Bir’s ballistic research is helping law enforcement throughout the country develop better, less-lethal weapons that release electric shocks known as Tasers.
The research will also develop information about the possibility of making less-lethal firearms, according to the National Institute of Justice.
WSU’s ballistic research Web site states that ballistics is the study of motion. In her research, Bir studies the impact of Tasers and bullets on the body. The study is separated into two subcategories: external and internal ballistics.
The external refers to the motion of bullets passing through air and internal is the motion of a bullet through a weapon like a shotgun, according to Lt. David Scott of Wayne State’s Crime Prevention Department.
The goal of the research is to determine how the impact of the motion caused by a bullet or Taser affects the body.
“Dr. Bir’s research will hopefully provide many answers to current questions concerning internal and external ballistics and the effect of less-lethal munitions on humans,” Scott said. “It will also explain the overall effectiveness of using less-lethal munitions.
“Her latest research also gives the police more information about Taser-type weapons and systems.”
Wayne State Police Department’s involvement in Bir’s research is important because the department regularly supplies her with weapons that firearm instructors use during experiments.
“In Dr. Bir’s research and testing of less-lethal munitions, we provide firearm instructors who fire the less-lethal rounds in both the shotgun format and 37mm/40mm launcher format,” Scott said. “We also give free maintenance and armored services for the firearms she utilizes, and we purchased three launchers for her civilian research projects.”
The overall cost of the research is $757,416, with most of the funding coming from the National Institute of Justice, according to the College of Engineering faculty funding forum.
Bir received her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from WSU. She started working for the university in 2000, and since then has actively contributed to ballistic research. But her somewhat celebrity status exists because of her sports research.
Bir participated in popular documentaries, like “Sports Science,” which aired on Fox Sports Network in 2006. She also appeared in the National Geographic show, “Fight Science” in 2007.
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