Submitted by: Firearms Committee

FC.07.t2018

WHEREAS, a “Crime Gun” includes any firearm unlawfully possessed, used in a crime, or suspected to have been used in a 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, armed criminals are often mobile, and evidence of their crimes is easily dispersed across police districts, cities, states and international borders as well; and

WHEREAS, the cross-jurisdictional nature of gun violence requires a regional approach because an agency’s probability of successfully apprehending and prosecuting an offender can be dependent upon what an officer in the next town over does or does not do with the crime gun they may discover; 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, crime gun tracing through ATF eTrace (electronic trace system) and NCIC (National Crime Information Center) queries can help police identify and track purchasers, owners and possessors of firearms; and

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

WHEREAS, scientific and information technology tools like eTrace for crime gun tracing, NCIC for stolen firearms reporting and recognition, National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) for ballistics evidence, Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), and Automated Finger Print Identification System (AFIS), can help police develop and share information about the identity of armed criminals across wide geographic regions; and

WHEREAS, regional firearm recovery and crime gun evidence processing protocols applied and communicated in a timely manner can provide law enforcement agencies with actionable information to help identify and apprehend armed suspects quickly thereby denying them the opportunity to reoffend and to perfect stronger criminal cases against them; and

WHEREAS, to support this regional collaboration, ATF has been working with partners to establish Comprehensive Crime Gun Intelligence Strategies. ATF and its partners, through the National Crime Gun Intelligence Governing Board (NCGIGB) have developed a Best Practices Guide, which is designed to help agencies accomplish several goals including the identification of armed violent offenders for investigation and prosecution; and,

WHEREAS, a comprehensive Crime Gun Intelligence Strategy can also aid in the identification of crime gun sources, efficient resource allocation, providing decision makers with the most accurate crime data available, and increasing case closure rates, public safety, and the prevention of violent crime committed with firearms. Now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, that the International Association of Chiefs of Police strongly encourages all law enforcement agencies to establish protocols that ensure that recovered firearms and other ballistic evidence are appropriately subjected to e-trace, NCIC, NIBIN, DNA swabbing and latent fingerprint and trace evidence examinations; and be it

FURTHER RESOLVED, that the International Association of Chiefs of Police strongly supports the creation of Comprehensive Crime Gun Intelligence Strategies and urges all agencies to review the National Crime Gun Intelligence Governing Board’s (NCGIGB) Best Practices Guide and consider the establishment of such strategies to better coordinate and support firearms related criminal investigations.