San Antonio Police Department NIBIN Implementation Program

The FY 2017 Technology Innovation for Public Safety (TIPS) Addressing Precipitous Increases in Crime is designed to enable strategic information sharing across crime-fighting agencies and with identified partnerships to address specific local or regional crime problems. This program is funded under the ‘reserved funds’ section (42 U.S.C. section 3756(b)(1)) of the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program. The ‘reserved funds’ section provides that up to 5 percent of the funds available to carry out the JAG Program may be granted for one or more of the purposes specified at 42 U.S.C. section 3751 upon a determination that such a grant is necessary ‘to combat, address, or otherwise respond to precipitous or extraordinary increases in crime, or in a type or types of crime. 42 U.S.C. section 3756(b)(1).

The San Antonio Police Department is beginning to plan the development of an internal forensic firearms laboratory. The initial deployment will include an IBIS BRASSTRAX-3DTM Acquisition Station and a MATCHPOINTTM Analysis Station which will allow the SAPD to become part of and participate in the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) system. The laboratory will allow the SAPD to test firearms to recover empty shell casings and to enter them into the NIBIN data-base. Additionally, shell casings recovered at crime scenes will also be analyzed and entered into the NIBIN database. Through this process, the SAPD will be able to reduce the time for firearm and casing test results from upwards of six months to a matter of days. This reduction in time will provide the SAPD with on time, actionable intelligence that will be extremely useful.
CA/NCF