Adopted at the 119th Annual Conference

San Diego, CA
October 3, 2012

Regional Crime Gun Processing Protocols Submitted by the Firearms Committee
FC.028.a12

WHEREAS, a "Crime Gun" for the purposes of this resolution includes any firearm used in crime or suspected to have been used in crime. This may include firearms abandoned or otherwise taken into law enforcement custody that are either suspected to have been used in a crime or whose proper disposition can be facilitated through a firearms trace; and

WHEREAS, crime Gun Tracing and NCIC (National Crime Information Center) queries can help police identify and track purchasers, owners and possessors of firearms; and

WHEREAS, ballistics Evidence, bullets and cartridge cases discharged from a crime gun can be used to link a firearm to prior crimes and to link two or more crimes together; and

WHEREAS, forensic Evidence such as DNA, latent fingerprints, and other trace evidence like hairs and fibers can help police link Crime Guns and Ballistics Evidence to a criminal; and

WHEREAS, the armed criminals of today are mobile and evidence of their crimes is easily dispersed across police districts, cities, states and international borders as well; and

WHEREAS, a regional approach is necessary because a law enforcement officer's degree of success in solving a murder in one city can be dependent upon what an officer in the next town over does or does not do with the crime gun he or she seizes in a traffic stop; and

WHEREAS, scientific and information technology tools like eTrace for crime gun tracing, NCIC for stolen firearms reporting and recognition, NIBIN for ballistics evidence, CODIS for DNA, and AFIS for fingerprints, can help police develop and share information about the identity of armed criminals across wide geographic regions; and

WHEREAS, maximum benefits from these intelligence-led policing tools can be achieved through collaboratively defined crime gun processing protocols consistently applied by the law enforcement agencies operating within a region where armed criminals are likely to be crisscrossing multiple police jurisdictions; and

WHEREAS, regional crime gun and evidence processing protocols can provide law enforcement agencies with timely and actionable information to help identify and apprehend armed suspects quickly thereby denying them the opportunity to re-offend and to perfect stronger criminal cases against them; and

WHEREAS, more armed criminals convicted and Justice served helps to preserve the peace and protect the public; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, that the IACP views regionally applied crime gun and evidence processing protocols as a best practice for the investigation of firearm related crimes and encourages law enforcement officials, prosecuting attorneys and forensic experts to collaborate on the design of mutually agreeable protocols best suited for their region. The protocols should address each of the following critical areas: • The thorough investigation of each gun related crime including the safe and proper collection of all crime guns & related evidence. • The performance of appropriate NCIC transactions (e.g. stolen, recovered). • The timely and comprehensive tracing of all crime guns through ATF & eTrace. • The timely processing of crime gun test fires and ballistics evidence through NIBIN. • The timely lab submission and analysis of other forensic data from crime guns and related evidence (e.g. DNA, latent fingerprints, trace evidence). • The generation, dissemination and investigative follow-up of the intelligence derived from the application of the regional protocols.