ATF Announces Grand Opening of National Crime Gun Intelligence Center of Excellence
WASHINGTON – Today, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced the grand opening of ATF’s National Crime Gun Intelligence Center of Excellence located on the Innovation Campus of Wichita State University in Kansas. The National Crime Gun Intelligence Center of Excellence will be the leader and model for training and academies providing the most effective investigative techniques, technical applications and the newest systems using crime gun intelligence for local, state, tribal and federal law enforcement agencies throughout the United States.
“I am thrilled to announce the grand opening of ATF’s new National Crime Gun Intelligence Center of Excellence,” said ATF Director Steven Dettelbach. “In addition to being a hub for research and training, the new center will allow us to expand critical intelligence services so that we can help police officers, homicide detectives, and gang units across the country close more gun cases faster than ever. This center will have a real impact on solving violent crimes for our law enforcement partners nationwide – they will be solving violent gun crime with a match made in Wichita. I want to thank Senator Moran and Dr. Muma of Wichita State University for their leadership in making this center possible.”
The Center of Excellence will serve as home for the National Crime Gun Intelligence Governing Board. The board was established in 2016, and its purpose is to leverage collective experience of local, state and federal experts working in forensics, law enforcement, criminal law and academia to ensure ATF is receiving diverse and relevant input on current and future crime gun intelligence programs and processes. Board members are comprised of chiefs of police, forensic science lab directors, prosecutors and ATF executives who lead in the field of crime gun intelligence.
The Center of Excellence will house a second National Correlation and Training Center for the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network. NIBIN is the only national network that allows for the 3D imaging and comparison of ballistic evidence recovered from crime scenes. The current NIBIN National Correlation and Training Center, located in Huntsville, Alabama, conducts approximately 1,700 correlations per day for law enforcement agencies nationwide.
Bringing the second correlation center online at the Center of Excellence allows ATF to expand its correlation services, creating the capacity to provide NIBIN correlations to additional law enforcement agencies, resulting in more crime gun intelligence leads for our law enforcement partners nationwide. ATF’s correlation services are provided at no cost to law enforcement. This center will also allow ATF to expand their technical training to ATF’s law enforcement partners in acquisition and correlation training.
To learn more about ATF and its crime gun intelligence programs, go to https://www.atf.gov/firearms/tools-services-law-enforcement.
