ATF, Aurora Police Demo Groundbreaking Ballistic Imaging Technology
Imaging equipment that allows police departments to match bullet casings like fingerprints, giving law enforcers the ability solve shooting or even murder cases across community, county or state lines.
Sound like something out of a movie or TV crime drama?
It’s not. The technology has been available for years, but thanks to Department of Justice, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network techology is now available to local law enforcers right here in Kane County.
The ATF and Aurora Police Department held a demonstration for Chicago-area media Wednesday, showcasing the equipment that was installed at the Aurora Police Department this July.
The technology is now available for use by law enforcement agencies in seven Illinois collar counties in the Chicago metropolitan area: Kane, DuPage, Kendall, Grundy, Lake, LaSalle and Will.
The Aurora equipment is one of the 22 ballistic machines awarded nationally, while the participating police departments are contributing the personnel needed to enter ballistic intelligence into the system.
Having the technology at APD will allow regional police departments to enter cartridge cases from crime scenes and test fired cartridge cases from recovered crime guns into the system.
Law enforcement agencies are bridging the gap of ballistic intelligence by entering leads into the NIBIN database at this newly created collaborative.
“Ballistics technology is the priority of ATF’s Chicago Field Division overall Crime Gun Strategy, and an important investigative tool that gives local, state and federal law enforcement the ability to connect cases and apprehend violent criminals,” said Chicago Field Division ATF Special Agent in Charge Celinez Nunez.
Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman said the partnership with the ATF “adds yet another layer to the foundation we’ve built.”
“APD is offering resources and our facility because we are geographically centralized in the seven counties of the ATF region,” she said.
The goal of the initiative is to increase the data entered into the system by regional departments in order to take advantage of NIBIN technology to match bullet casings and solve gun crimes.
A Closer Look at NIBIN
NIBIN is a program managed by ATF using Integrated Ballistics Identification System technology.
The technology is designed to serve as a comprehensive, regional ballistic database of cartridge cases from shootings as well as those cartridge cases test fired from recovered firearms. It 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 what could be accomplished without the technology, connecting crimes that previously may not have been associated. The technology aids in the sharing of intelligence with respect to shootings across jurisdictional boundaries.
By linking shootings, NIBIN allows investigators to successfully close cases that would have otherwise gone unsolved. NIBIN also provides prosecutors admissible evidence to corroborate witness testimony with respect to the time and place when a shooting occurred.
A 2013 National Institute of Justice (NIJ) study examined NIBIN and identified four critical pillars upon which a NIBIN Program could achieve unprecented success . Those four critical pillars are: comprehensive data collection, timeliness, investigative follow-up and feedback.
Investigative follow-up and prosecution is needed on each NIBIN lead provided by the site by linking otherwise unassociated crimes gives investigators a better chance to identify witnesses to assist in the investigation and arrest shooters before they re-offend.
To learn more about the Regional Suburban NIBIN Initiative and how your agency can participate, please contact the Downers Grove office of the ATF Chicago Field Division at (630) 725-5220 or Resident Agent in Charge Tim Wilson at Timothy.R.Wilson@atf.gov.
SOURCE: Aurora Police Department
