Invitation to Press Conference and Mobile NIBIN Unit Tour

Posted on October 25, 2021| By | In Uncategorized

The Alamance County Sheriff’s Office would like to invite media to a special press conference and tour of the Mobile National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) Unit and Shoot Trailer on Thursday, November 4, 2021, at 2:00 p.m. The event will take place in the Judge J.B. Allen Criminal Courthouse parking lot located at 212 W. Elm Street in Graham.
 
ATF has coordinated the Mobile NIBIN Unit and Shoot Trailer to be in the Greensboro and surrounding areas from October 25 through November 5. The Alamance County Sheriff’s Office has the privilege to host the unit and trailer from November 1 – 5 with scheduled times for local law enforcement agencies to use its services.
 
The scheduled media day on November 4 at 2:00 p.m. will include a short press conference and time for you to see the Mobile Unit and learn more about the NIBIN program. Local command staff from surrounding law enforcement agencies will also be available to answer questions about the program.    
 
ATF’s National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) automates ballistics evaluation and provides actionable investigative leads in a timely manner.  ATF’s NIBIN vehicle is a mobile unit that provides timely, onsite results to ballistics and firearms tracing. Like a fingerprint, every firearm leaves unique markings on shell casings, markings that can be entered into NIBIN and matched with casings recovered from other crime scenes. Ballistics and firearms tracing help connect guns and shooters to the crimes they commit.
 
There are 13 NIBIN sites in the Carolinas, with 10 sites providing service to law enforcement agencies throughout NC. With two local NIBIN sites at the Greensboro Police Department and the Winston Salem Police Department, NIBIN is able to provide investigative leads within a 48-hour window after either evidence or a test fired cartridge is entered into the IBIS system. Every department participating in this event has 24-7 access to these sites.
 
The Mobile NIBIN unit, one of only two in the U.S., has been stationed throughout the Carolinas for the last several weeks to assist in test fires and ballistics evaluation from guns and casings recovered at area crime scenes.
 
Our two local NIBIN sites identified 1,006 unique Crime Guns in the last 12 months utilizing NIBIN alone. These Crime Guns were identified through the acquisition of 6,317 individual spent cartridges recovered as ballistic evidence or produced as a test fire cartridge. This great success makes up for roughly 30% of the total number of casings entered into the system statewide.
The NNCTC (National NIBIN Correlation & Training Center) developed more than 2,700 Investigative Leads in the last 12 months in our AOR. These 2,700 leads make up roughly 39% of all Investigative Leads developed in the State of North Carolina as a whole.
 
ATF estimates NIBIN systems across the country will analyze over half a million casings over the last year, generating up to 100,000 leads.
 
Firearms tracing and ballistics tracing (through NIBIN) play a critical role in identifying trends and illegal activities. Intelligence through tracing helps our division know where to best apply our resources.
 
The ability to recover and trace a firearm or a shell casing helps us answer two important questions – Who is the shooter and how did that individual get a firearm?
 
For more information on ATF’s NIBIN program visit: 
https://www.atf.gov/firearms/national-integrated-ballistic-information-network-nibin