According to a report by the Police Foundation and the Major Cities Chiefs Association, major city and county law enforcement leaders identified ballistic imaging tools as the most helpful, followed by gun tracing tools, in preventing and reducing crime, specifically gun violence.¹ Ballistic imaging is the process of examining fired cartridge cases (and bullets), capturing images of firearm produced marks using state-of-the-art 3D technology, and then searching those images against a database containing millions of similar images from other local (or if needed, national) shootings. The technology helps to answer the question — “In what crimes has a gun been used?” Provided that it is implemented in the context of an overall strategy to maximize effectiveness and efficiency, that question can be answered within minutes of the fired cartridge cases (and bullets) being entered into the database.

Preventative crime gun strategies are very effective in helping to identify repetitive shooters and enabling law enforcement agencies to implement proactive strategies to arrest and remove those shooters from the streets. Research involving agencies that have implemented comprehensive preventive crime gun strategies have demonstrated that anywhere from 25 to 40 percent of shooting crimes can be linked to other shootings. For example, in a published report of their program, the city of Denver, Colorado, highlighted the following statistics from January 2013 through March 2015:

• • 310 confirmed links between shootings
  • 75 different shooters identified or arrested
    •  34 facing state charges
    • 13 facing federal charges
    • 5 parole revocations
    • 23 officer safety bulletins issued, warning police of potential shooters of whom the police should be aware²

In another discussion with respect to comprehensive preventive crime gun strategies, Captain David Salazar of the Milwaukee Police Department credits the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) with providing powerful actionable intelligence that helps to inform police strategies to prevent shootings.³

Within the last several years, law enforcement agencies have made a concerted effort to reexamine investigative and enforcement strategies, looking to maximize the power that various technologies offer. This effort revealed shortfalls in other areas, shortfalls that were not otherwise visible. So, while the power of technology was being effectively leveraged, it was not until the advent of an overall preventive crime gun strategy that more promising results were realized. In an interview, Assistant Police Chief Paul Neudigate (Cincinnati, Ohio) said, “We believe our strategies hold promise as we were one of the few large urban cities to obtain double digit reductions in homicides and shootings in 2016.”⁴ When Assistant Chief Neudigate spoke of strategies, he was referencing the entirety of the preventative crime gun strategy, knowing that NIBIN is one component of that approach. Other cities and agencies have witnessed similar successes after implementing preventative crime gun measures.

Each community is different and the law enforcement agencies serving those communities are as diverse; however, there are some general guiding principles that can be helpful to agencies as they begin to explore the potential of a preventive crime gun strategy to implement. Among these guiding principles, there are six keys to implementing a successful, regional preventive crime gun strategy:

• Establishing stakeholder buy-in/management
•  Implementing a regional approach
•  Making NIBIN the cornerstone
•  Overlaying technologies
•  Knowing offenders and how they interact
•  Utilizing one intelligence unit

Establishing Stakeholder Buy-In/Management

In order for a preventive crime gun strategy to be successful, it must be adopted as an agencywide initiative involving high-level command personnel. The strategy should also include stakeholders from the region’s law enforcement agencies (local, regional, federal); specialized groups within those agencies; the forensic science laboratories (even if NIBIN will not be located there); and the prosecuting offices. The stakeholders will have to be unified under a single vision. The vision should be simple, capable of being measured, and have meaning throughout each of the six keys of the strategy. For example, the vision could be, “To make the streets safer and bring justice to victims and families.” This vision is simple, concise, and capable of being measured in terms of shooter identifications and arrests, and it has relevance to stakeholders tasked with protecting the public and enhancing community potential.

Due to the multidisciplinary approach necessary, it is critical to move beyond cooperation and achieve collaboration with stakeholders and clients. It may appear to be a trivial point but, on a macro-level, there are substantive differences between cooperation and collaboration. When an agency cooperates, they do what is needed to get through the problem, while collaborators take ownership of their role in responding to a problem. Those who cooperate become part of someone else’s solution; collaborators become a source of a team-based solution. Those who simply cooperate tend to resent their role, which often has been forced upon them, looking for failings in others to absolve themselves of further responsibility. However, those who collaborate understand that their role is vital and take responsibility for themselves without concern for what others are or are not doing. Finally, those who cooperate are left to react to crimes that have already occurred with no vision for the future, while collaborators respond to a crime problem with the hope of reducing it in the future. Those who are simply cooperating look for ways out. Those who collaborate look for better ways. Any plan to move forward that does not recognize the need for collaboration is doomed from the start.

Collaboration will allow for the proper utilization of people, processes, and technology; each of which is necessary to the success and sustainability of a preventive crime gun strategy.⁵ IBIS technology has been at the core of the NIBIN program in the United States since the late 1990s. However, it wasn’t until 2012 that the program saw more widespread success. The key was recognizing that the processes in place were not well-coordinated with the potential of the technology, needlessly limiting its potential. Just as the processes were misaligned, so too were the people. The important aspect of proper utilization is to properly align personnel with processes and technology so the knowledge, skills, and abilities of personnel are appropriately matched with the task at hand. For example, using trained technicians to perform IBIS acquisitions and correlation reviews instead of firearm examiners frees the examiners to perform tasks for which they are especially trained, tasks that often would take priority over the IBIS tasks.

For this proper development and alignment, the stakeholders will be responsible for developing clear policies by which the strategy will be organized and governed. Policies will be needed to address these issues:

• Thorough investigation of each gun-related crime, including the safe and proper collection of all crime guns and related evidence

• The performance of appropriate National Crime Intelligence Center (NCIC) transactions

• The timely and comprehensive tracing of all crime guns through ATF’s e-Trace

• The timely processing of crime gun and test fires and ballistics evidence through NIBIN

• The timely lab submission and analysis of other forensic data from crime guns and related evidence such as DNA and fingerprints

• The generation, dissemination, and investigative follow-up of the intelligence derived from the application of the regional protocols

The ultimate goal is to create a network that will give investigators actionable crime gun intelligence within 48 hours of a shooting offense. This will put investigators into the advantageous position of being able to disrupt crime as opposed to simply reacting to criminal events. This, in turn, allows for the very real potential of getting active shooters off the streets before they can re-offend, thereby making the community’s streets safer.

Implementing a Regional Approach

Shooters—and their firearms—travel. For example, it’s quite possible and likely that a shooting crime takes place in one jurisdiction and the shooter drives into another. where he or she is stopped by police and apprehended for a separate offense. If those two jurisdictions are not tied into the same ballistic information sharing network, it’s quite possible that a link between the two incidents will never be made and the shooter will remain free to further victimize his or her community. A successful preventive crime gun strategy will acknowledge this risk from the start and recognize that the approach will eventually have to become regional, bridging cross-jurisdictional gaps, if it’s to have any lasting impact.

An example of the impact of regional information sharing can be seen in a mid-sized city in California that is on a major highway that links it to large cities in two other counties within 12 and 22 miles. A short-term initiative in the original city had NIBIN as the cornerstone. In four months, that city alone developed 70+ leads through the use of the NIBIN database. In addition, cities from outside the region were also linking shootings in their communities to shootings in the initiative city. In total, of those 70+ leads, 56 percent linked to jurisdictions outside the county. None of this information would have been discovered if not for leveraging the regional capabilities of NIBIN.

In developing a regional approach it can be expected that memorandums of understanding or agreement will have to be made between the participating agencies. These agreements will also be important when looking at the implementation of NIBIN as the cornerstone of the preventive crime gun strategy. The reason—different aspects of NIBIN can be personnel-intensive, and agreement will have to be made as to how and when the IBIS technology will be used and shared among jurisdictions. Jurisdictions have approached this differently, but, regardless of the details, the successful ones have policies in place that establish this issue as a regional element.

For example, one agency set up an approach in which trained users from other agencies were allowed to utilize the agency’s IBIS equipment to make entries. In this way, the agency that housed the equipment did not take responsibility for anyone else’s evidence. A Google calendar was used, and agencies could schedule blocks of time for their entries. This is useful when agencies have a large amount of evidence that they wish to enter, as it keeps much of the burden with that agency. Another agency would permit other departments to bring their evidence by appointment and enter it in for them while the custodian of the evidence waited. This is helpful for those agencies that have fewer entries to complete.

Some law enforcement agencies are already poised for a regional approach because the IBIS technology is housed in a forensic science laboratory that serves the region. However, the processes in place may need to be modified for a successful preventive crime gun strategy. For instance, a number of accredited forensic laboratories have successfully adjusted their internal policies and procedures so that there is minimum delay between the receipt of firearm-related evidence from shooting scenes or test fires, and the release of a notification while remaining within accreditation guidelines.

Some of these adjustments may necessitate additional work for the submitting agency to help facilitate the efficiency of the NIBIN site. For example, local agencies may be required to process their own firearms for DNA, latent prints, and test firing. Once seen as solely the responsibility of a forensic laboratory, these tasks are rather routine and can be easily managed by trained individuals from the parent agency of the evidence. This practice helps to spread the work from one agency (the forensic laboratory) to several agencies. The key is to look for a collaborative solution in which everyone is carrying a fair share of the responsibility. Everyone has a role and collaborates to make this strategy as efficient and effective as possible for all involved parties.

One last critical element in this regional approach is that it is best to start small and build from there. As might be evident, there are many moving parts and considerations in adopting a preventive crime gun strategy, particularly one that involves a regional approach. Policies and processes will have to be continually modified. If the scope is initially kept small and built from there, it will be easier to work out any kinks in the strategy.

Making NIBIN the Cornerstone

NIBIN is a program managed by ATF, utilizing IBIS technology. It is a comprehensive, regional ballistic database of cartridge cases and bullets from shootings as well as cartridge cases and bullets from test fires of recovered firearms.

NIBIN is a pointer system that generates investigative leads, answering the question: “What crimes has the gun in question been used to commit?” NIBIN is able to link crimes more quickly than could be accomplished without the technology, connecting crimes that previously would not have been associated with each other. As described in the previous example of the city in California with over half of the leads connecting with outside jurisdictions, NIBIN aids in the sharing of intelligence with respect to shootings across jurisdictional boundaries. By linking shootings in multiple jurisdictions, NIBIN helps bring closure to the families of victims by allowing investigators to successfully close cases that would have otherwise gone unsolved. If implemented as the cornerstone of an overall preventive crime gun strategy, NIBIN can also reduce the number of families needing closure by helping the police take active shooters off the streets before they commit another homicide. NIBIN also provides prosecutors with admissible evidence to corroborate witness testimony.

A 2013 National Institute of Justice (NIJ) study examined NIBIN and identified four critical pillars upon which a NIBIN program could achieve unprecented success.⁶ Those four critical pillars are comprehensive data collection, timeliness, investigative follow-up, and feedback.

Pillar 1: Comprehensive data collection begins at the scene. Every shooting scene has to be processed, and any shooting-related evidence collected, packaged, and submitted in a timely fashion. Once collected, all eligible firearm-related evidence has to be entered into NIBIN. This includes test fires and representative cartridge cases from all shooting scenes and recovered firearms. For purposes of comprehensive data collection, all firearm-related evidence is to be seen as having the same priority since each piece of firearm-related evidence is potentially the key in helping to solve a no-suspect shooting or a series of shootings.

Pillar 2: Timeliness refers to the time between the incident and notification of the acquisition and correlation review in the NIBIN database to the investigators, providing them information about any potential leads. Since the previously referenced NIJ report concluded that the value of notifications drops precipitously after only a one-week delay, the actual quality of the information being provided is directly linked to the timeliness of that information.

Pillar 3: Investigative follow-up is needed on each NIBIN lead provided by the site. In these instances, the previously low-priority shootings that are now linked to a homicide investigation become as potentially critical as that homicide investigation. This is because potential witnesses or other evidence from those low-priority shootings could provide information leading to the successful identification of suspects in homicides.

Pillar 4: Feedback refers to a communication loop including everyone in the process. While IBIS sites, especially those based in forensic laboratories, may balk at being informed of the usefulness of the information they provided in helping to lead to the arrest of a suspect, this information is critical to continued morale and funding of the program. Feedback is also critical to help refine and improve the program and its processes and procedures, as well as providing information to officials to make an intelligent decision on the allocation of limited resources.

When these four critical keys are embraced, the potential of NIBIN as an investigative tool increases dramatically. The technology, as powerful as it is, is not enough; its implementation requires an approach that maximizes personnel and processes to go along with the technology.

Overlaying Technologies

IBIS (within the context of NIBIN) is but one technology of an assortment of technologies available to assist law enforcement in battling violent and organized crime. In developing a successful preventive crime gun strategy, it is essential that these additional technologies be examined for their potential to help in the overall strategy. Individually, these technologies can provide some information. However, when strategically overlaid, the power of those individual pieces of information can become exponential.

For example, consider six shootings all linked to a single firearm by NIBIN. The shootings have been captured and time-stamped utilizing acoustic gunshot detection technology. By using that information, investigators obtain cellphone tower records for those shootings and find cellphone numbers in common with all six locations, providing them with potential leads with respect to suspects.

A successful preventive crime gun strategy recognizes that, while NIBIN is the cornerstone, it is not the only technology to be leveraged.

Gunshot detection is acoustic technology that reliably captures and identifies gunfire, triangulating the location of the shooting within 25 meters. It can provide reliable information with respect to location and time, along with the number of shots fired, the number of firearms involved, and the direction of travel if the shooters are in motion. Acoustic technology can have a significant positive impact on comprehensive collection of evidence, which is needed to support a successful NIBIN cornerstone. Even if one were to respond to every report of a shooting and collect the associated evidence, not all shootings are necessarily reported. There are reports that almost 8 of 10 shootings go unreported to 911.⁷ Therefore, even if comprehensive collection was being performed at all reported scenes, it is quite possible that over 75 percent of the potential evidence remains in the streets. In fact, it is especially likely that shootings in areas in which shootings are normally high would go unreported as members of the community begin to get accustomed to the shootings as simply a fact of life in their area.

Firearms tracing through ATF’s e-Trace is the systematic tracking of a recovered firearm from its manufacturer or importer and subsequent introduction into the distribution chain to the first purchaser. When a law enforcement agency recovers a firearm at a crime scene, it can request a firearms trace. That information can be used to link a suspect to a firearm in a criminal investigation and identify potential traffickers or straw purchasers (those individuals who purchase multiple firearms for distribution to those who are legally prohibited from purchasing firearms).

Cellphone analysis involves accessing two basic types of evidence. One is electronic evidence and the second is retained data evidence. Electronic evidence includes the user’s call history, contacts, calendar information, and information stored on the SIM card. Retained data evidence includes telecom records involving the detail of calls made and received and the geographical location of the mobile phone when a call took place.

Social media software allows investigators to have targeted, rapid, and comprehensive information that may exist in Tweets, Facebook posts, Instagram photos, and YouTube videos. This can include information regarding various shootings, known associates, recent sightings, and future plans. While looking for and reviewing this information can be done manually, software allows for more comprehensive coverage of the various social media platforms.

These various technologies offer investigators different bits of information that can be used to develop comprehensive intelligence with respect to a shooting incident or a series of different shooting incidents. Once these various resources are identified, it is important to develop a plan for how these technologies will be used and to identify the resources that will be needed to support the technologies.

NIBIN is the key in identifying the responsible firearm involved in the shooting, not necessarily the suspect involved in the shooting. By overlaying technologies, investigators can help develop intelligence about the potential shooter. This is done through a comprehensive link analysis of all available information that can be gathered about the shootings.

Just as IBIS-related processes are better suited to a technician than a firearm examiner, link analysis is also better suited to an intelligence analyst than an investigator. This division of labor also allows essential elements of the preventive crime gun strategy to occur simultaneously. The NIBIN unit can be issuing leads, investigators can be following up on leads, and the crime analyst can be working on the next link analysis.

As important as it is, IBIS is but one piece of technology. There are many others that are valuable not only in establishing potential links between shooting incidents but also in providing intelligence to identify suspects. The key is to develop pertinent information from all available sources into actionable leads.

Knowing Offenders and How They Interact

Technology won’t identify all suspects in all investigations all the time. Knowing offenders and how they interact with one another is key to having a successful strategy for investigative follow-up. Various NIBIN sites have reported that up to 50 percent of shootings entered into NIBIN are linked to other shootings, indicating that the social network of those involved in shooting crimes can be small and tight. Many offenders obtain their firearms through their social network; thus, the value of a comprehensive social network analysis cannot be overlooked for obtaining information about the crime under investigation as well as other crimes.

It is also valuable to have knowledge of previous firearm offenses, along with information from probation and parole agencies in an affected region. This information is valuable because the goal is to get the active shooters off the streets as quickly and efficiently as possible. If this is through revocations of parole while other offenses are being investigated, then so be it. In these instances, investigations can often proceed at a less critical and urgent pace, allowing detectives to potentially be more thorough and comprehensive in building a package for the prosecutor.

Identifying and apprehending shooters is the primary goal in the overall mission of reducing crime gun violence in communities. Just as overlaying technologies helps provide the most comprehensive information possible, knowledge of offenders and how they interact will help ensure that the most comprehensive intelligence is developed.

Utilizing One Intelligence Unit

Given all the various potential technologies and agencies involved, a single hub through which all the information is processed is the best option for ensuring that everything is appropriately leveraged and that nothing is lost or overlooked. Therefore, it is best for a region to develop a single crime gun intelligence center. Centers such as these have been established in various cities and have proven quite successful in helping to bridge the gaps in the exchanges and hand-offs of information and data. This practice is especially helpful because criminals don’t adhere to geographic boundaries or law enforcement jurisdictions.

With the overlaying of a wide variety of technologies and so many different avenues that can be exploited, it’s becoming increasingly important to have a collaborative effort among agencies in a given region. Rarely will a single agency have all the tools and expertise from which a crime gun intelligence strategy could benefit. Collaboration allows for pooling resources, which makes fiscal sense in terms of both management and availability. A single crime gun intelligence center can also interface with the different record management systems within agencies, allowing for a more comprehensive and timely data mining of reports for critical information, and be in a better position to disseminate information among the collaborating agencies.

A single intelligence unit also helps to keep the group focused on the overall mission. If the unit is segregated, it is more possible that personal agendas and rivalries, both inter-agency and intra-agency, will get in the way of the overall mission. A crime gun intelligence effort requires a truly collaborative effort to be successful. This collaboration has a shared mission and foundation—failing or succeeding as a team in an effort to better serve the community at large. A single intelligence unit helps to maintain this very important focus.

Concluding Thoughts

The overall goal for those in the criminal justice system (police, laboratory personnel, and prosecutors) should be prevention of and, ultimately, the reduction and eradication of gun crime all together. The best way to accomplish this vision is by implementing a coordinated, regional preventive crime gun strategy. While a specific blueprint for that strategy will have to be customized for the particular region, there are six foundational keys that are common to all successful strategies: (1) establishing stakeholder buy-in/management; (2) implementing a regional approach; (3) making NIBIN the cornerstone; (4) overlaying technologies; (5) knowing offenders and how they interact; and (6) utilizing one intelligence unit. When all six keys are properly managed, a regional preventive crime gun strategy has the best opportunity for success. d

Notes:

¹ Full Report Reducing Violent Crime in American Cities: An Opportunity to Lead (Washington, DC: National Police Foundation, January 2017), 30–31.

² Charles Reno and Zachary Kotas, “The Denver Crime Gun Intelligence Center (CGIC): An Example of Successful Implementation of NIBIN as an Investigative Tool,” AFTE Journal 47, no. 4 (2015): 238–243.

³ David Salazar, Pamela Hofsass, and Ron Nichols, “Establishing a Crime Gun Intelligence Program Within Your Agency/Region,” Justice Clearinghouse, June 8, 2017.

⁴ Christina McCale, “How Cincinnati Police Department’s Consistent Efforts Are Paying Off: An Interview with Paul Neudigate,” Justice Clearinghouse, July 17, 2017.

⁵ Pete Gagliardi, The 13 Critical Tasks: An Inside Out Approach to Solving More Gun Crime, 2nd ed. (Quebec, CA: Ultra Electronics Forensic Technology Inc, 2010).

⁶ William King, et al., Opening the Black Box of NIBIN: A Process and Outcome Evaluation of the Use of NIBIN and Its Effects on Criminal Investigations, Final Report (Washington, DC: Department of Justice, October 2013).

⁷ The ShotSpotter website.

Please cite as

Brandon Huntley, James Needles, and Ronald Nichols, “Implementing a Regional Preventive Crime Gun Strategy,” Police Chief Online, December 18, 2019.