Santa Clara County Crime Gun Intelligence Center Application; seeks to fund 2 Crime Analysts, lab equipment and a Gun Crime prosecutor.

Project Abstract:                  Santa Clara County Crime Gun Intelligence Program                       

The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office seeks to expand on an existing Crime Gun Intelligence Program by adding skilled analytic staff and essential equipment to more quickly analyze and investigate shooting cases. In 2017 the County’s Crime Laboratory hired four criminalists to process guns and expended casings and input them into IBIS/NIBIN. As hoped, this generated a huge amount of NIBIN leads, requiring the County to triage the cases to determine what can be done to quickly identify shooters and file a criminal case.  After initial success in building the foundation for a Crime Gun Intelligence Program, there is still a major problem addressing increased volume without additional resources. This grant proposal seeks to close critical gaps in processing shell casings and triaging leads. To successfully continue this NIBIN program, the County needs analysts to identify and link cases, coordinate with assigned investigators and get cases to a prosecution stage. Through a close partnership with the ATF, this program has successfully changed the way business is done in Santa Clara County.  Led by the DA Office’s Crime Strategies Unit, in partnership with all fourteen agencies in the County, all eligible firearms and casings are quickly and universally entered into NIBIN. This was a major task. The program needs analysts to triage and follow-up on newly linked cases and an additional Matchpoint terminal to assist in faster processing of casings. Having worked for several years to build critical partnerships, lay the infrastructure and embrace the national CGIC model, this grant seeks funding to sustain this program to meet the demand of dramatically increasing gun crime, shootings and gun recoveries with additional equipment and staff. Moreover, this program seeks to benefit from the wisdom and oversight of BJA and the team of experts that would help facilitate this grant award.