GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — Nearly $2M from the newly passed state budget is going to fund technology that will help police agencies gather intelligence about guns in Michigan.
The money is going to be used to purchase five National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) testing locations.
"The ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) has been at the forefront of gun violence when it comes to using technology to aid both the federal government and state and local departments in identifying crime guns for at least 25 years," said James Deir, Special Agent in Charge, ATF Detroit.
The NIBIN database provides law enforcement agencies with an automated resource for sharing, researching and identifying firearms ballistic data.
The funding will support a fixed unit in Lansing and mobile units in Benton Harbor, Flint, Grand Rapids and Saginaw.
"The gun tells the story, we call it crime gun intelligence," Deir said. "There's intelligence to be garnered from the gun, the gun has a life of its own, from who bought it to how it was used," he said.
Deir said since the pandemic, the west side of the state including places like Grand Rapids, Benton Harbor and Muskegon have seen an uptick in gun violence.
"Let's say for example, there is a shooting in the on the west side of Grand Rapids, and then you've got a shooting on the east side. A lot of times those detectives are in different precincts. So what NIBIN will do when that is entered into the software package, now I've been sends an alert to ATF and to the to Detective saying, 'Hey, you all are working something that the gun is linked to both crimes.'"
Deir said every firearm makes a distinct mark on shall casings and when those shell casings are left behind on a crime scene and collected and they're submitted into NIBIN.
"So a long time ago, say five years ago, police departments would get a report of shots fired. They walk around, it's cold out as Michigan winter. They don't see any shell casings or they do see a shell casing. But it's a victimless crime. Man, I'm not gonna pick those up, no one's no one's going to jail on this. There's nobody hurt. We'll just document that it happened? Well, you might have somebody there that has a piece of information about who did it. "
The funding will also go to support the staffing costs associated with the program and to purchase the equipment needed.