In January 2013, the Denver, Colorado, Police Department (DPD) and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Denver Field Division created a partnership to improve the way in which National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) hits are developed and investigated. The initiative, known as the Crime Gun Intelligence Center (CGIC), is an interagency collaboration within the Denver metropolitan region. It focuses on the collection, management, and analysis of crime gun data from systems such as NIBIN and eTrace. The team quickly grew to include the Aurora, Colorado, Police Department (APD); Lakewood, Colorado, Police Department (LPD); Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI); Second District Attorney’s Office (2nd DA); Seventeenth District Attorney’s Office (17th DA); Eighteenth District Attorney’s Office (18th DA); Colorado Department of Corrections, Division of Adult Parole (DOCDAP); Colorado Attorney General’s Office (CAGO); First District Attorney’s Office (1st DA); University of Colorado, Denver (UCD); and United States Attorney’s Office, District of Colorado (USAO).

The objectives of CGIC are to produce timely and actionable information focusing the efforts of its partners, including police, prosecutors, and forensics experts, on trigger pullers in the Denver metropolitan area and to prevent additional shootings. The Denver metropolitan area was selected as CGIC’s focus because the vast majority of violent crime in Colorado occurs within this region and the shared borders between the cities and towns lend themselves well to collaborative investigations.