Georgia State Partners With Atlanta Police on Department of Justice Initiative

ATLANTA — Georgia State University’s Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology will receive a $200,000, three-year grant to join the Atlanta Police Department as a research partner on the Department of Justice initiative to establish an Atlanta Crime Gun Intelligence Center (CGIC).

Crime Gun Intelligence Centers dramatically increase the speed and efficiency with which police process shooting incidents by leveraging use of the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN), which can help identify guns used in prior crimes.

“This program is designed to identify the most serious and repeat trigger pullers and the guns that drive violent crime,” said Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology Dean Dabney. “It coordinates efforts among the police on the streets, crime labs, criminal investigators and local and federal prosecutors on how best to focus their efforts to systematically impact gun crime.”

As lead investigator, Dabney heads Georgia State’s efforts to develop, implement and monitor agreed upon performance measures and conduct the process and outcome evaluations of the Atlanta CGIC. He and his team assisted the APD in writing the grant proposal to fund the center.

“First, we are assisting the APD in the deployment of the processes,” he said. “We’ll help them set up the forms and databases that will allow for systematic tracking to occur seamlessly in the background. We will then analyze the trends on the back end and evaluate the effectiveness of the program based on its outcomes.”

Dabney described how the identification system works:

Every gun, when fired, places a series of unique markings on the projectile and shell casing. Ninety percent of the guns used on the street are pistols and semi-automatics that eject shell casings when fired. The systematic collection and analysis of these shell casings offer a powerful tool to solve gun crimes.

Trained NIBIN technicians take high-definition photos to identify the unique marketings left on a shell casing found at a crime scene. Those photos are then uploaded into a national database and the system searches to see if there’s a match. It downloads the 10 most likely matches, then a trained ballistics expert confirms a match. The details of this NIBIN lead are reviewed by a criminal investigator to connect shooting events and determine if a mutual suspect can be developed.

“As soon as shooting events happen, we want ballistics technicians to get the casings and get them tested to see if they match any other crime guns, which brings together investigators and coordinates their efforts,” Dabney said. “The idea is to identify the most prolific weapons and shooters and get them off the streets as soon as possible.”

There are 57 Crime Gun Intelligence Centers around the U.S. to date. However, the Atlanta CGIC is one of only a few with such a close and collaborative research partner.

“We are profoundly grateful for the grant that will establish the Atlanta Crime Gun Intelligence Center,” Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said in a news release announcing the new center in October. “This initiative will equip the Atlanta Police Department with advanced technology and critical resources to combat gun violence, disrupt drug trafficking and dismantle gang activity more effectively. Through innovation and strategic partnerships, we are committed to enhancing the safety and security of our communities.”

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