Policing Gun Crime
GDTs, eTrace, NIBIN, and CGICs (that's a lot of acronyms)
I’ve been reading up and thinking a lot lately about how law enforcement could better address interpersonal gun violence.* These perusals are inspired by an empirical paper that I’m working on with colleagues.
There are criminologists and other researchers doing some really interesting collaborative work with agencies. Two strategies quickly come to mind. 1) Focused deterrence/pulling levers-style operations, such as the “Operation Ceasefire” and the “Advance Peace” models, as well the creation of 2) non-fatal shooting units staffed adequately with similar priority access to crime labs and what not (like homicide units). If you’re interested in learning more about them, then I suggest Braga and Cook’s “Policing Gun Violence.”
A few other, perhaps related, options include: gunshot detection technology (GDT)(e.g., ShotSpotter), eTrace, the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN), and Crime Gun Intelligence Centers (CGICs).
Me and my colleague Eric Piza received some grant funding from the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center to study GDT in Paterson, New Jersey. I hope to share much more about GDT in future posts.
Eric and his co-authors have conducted rigorous evaluations of GDT in both Kansas City, MO and Chicago, IL. Dennis Mares has also done a few process and outcome evaluations, and his POP guide for GDT is a good first step if you’re looking to learn more about the technology. While there are still a lot of questions re: GDT's costs ($65-90k per square mile per year for ShotSpotter) and effectiveness in improving solve/arrest rates and reducing gun violence, published work out of Kansas City and Chicago finds that GDT may increase evidence collection efforts.
For one, GDT can increase the proportion of gunfire events that come to the attention of the police , particularly shootings in which there is no reporting from 911 calls. In Camden, NJ, early on, approximately 30% of gunshots were going unreported by residents when the detected gunfire incidents in the areas equipped with GDT were compared to citizen calls to 911 regarding “shots fired” or a person being shot in those areas.
Moreover, GDT led to significant increases in ballistic evidence (e.g., shell casings) and firearms recovered in the target areas relative to the control areas in the aforementioned two cities. That said, GDT did not improve clearance/arrest rates for both fatal and nonfatal shootings and did not reduce the number of shootings or other crimes committed with firearms.
More ballistic evidence and crime guns recovered could be parlayed into eTrace and NIBIN.
eTrace is a web-based application where law enforcement agencies can submit recovered crime guns to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF). There, law enforcement can retrieve detailed trace results which include: the point of origin and introduction into U.S. commerce by a licensed manufacturer or importer through an individual purchaser. It could be used to generate investigative leads to identify potential firearms traffickers, straw purchasers, and suspects in criminal investigations.
NIBIN, which was created by ATF in 1997, is a ballistics database and technology system designed to collect, manage, and analyze digital images of cartridge cases obtained from crime scenes or test fires of recovered crime guns. Based on the idea that each gun makes a unique “fingerprint” on a cartridge case upon firing, NIBIN uses high-definition, 3D digital images that are cross-correlated against existing entries in the system using an automated correlation algorithm. “Leads” point to an unconfirmed, potential association between 2+ pieces of firearm ballistic evidence based on a correlation review of the digital images in the NIBIN database, which can then be followed up by a closer examination from trained NIBIN technicians to confirm. A lead essentially connects two or more pieces of evidence recovered from separate incidents, indicating that the same firearm was likely used in each event.
Finally, CGICs serve to increase the utility of NIBIN. Since 2016, the Bureau of Justice Assistance has funded 54 sites to operate as CGICs. CGICs enhance the efficacy of NIBIN by 1) reducing processing time and 2) improving the comprehensiveness of NIBIN lead reports through federal (especially ATF), state, and local law enforcement partnerships. Once a NIBIN lead is identified through CGICs, stakeholders investigate utilizing interagency resources and actionable intelligence to facilitate the arrest and prosecution of suspects.
It’s possible that the use of all of these things in concert with one another could reduce gun violence. We should take a further look… And we are.
*This essay focuses on police-centric methods to address interpersonal gun violence. It does not include the plethora of other non-law enforcement options, such as community- and hospital-based violence intervention programs, demolishing vacant/abandoned housing, etc.