An Overview of ATF’s Crime Gun Intelligence Centers

An Overview of ATF’s Crime Gun Intelligence Centers

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) operates a network of Crime Gun Intelligence Centers (CGICs) across the United States. These centers serve as hubs for gathering, analyzing, and sharing intelligence about firearms used in crimes. The goal is to provide actionable intelligence to law enforcement agencies to help identify shooters, disrupt criminal networks, and reduce gun violence.

In this article, we’ll provide an overview of CGICs – what they are, how they operate, and their role in supporting law enforcement. We’ll also look at the benefits CGICs offer, as well as some of the challenges and limitations.

What is a CGIC?

A CGIC is essentially a fusion center focused specifically on gathering and analyzing intelligence related to crime guns. According to ATF [1], CGICs serve as “intelligence hubs and coordination centers for local, state and federal responses to mass shootings and other violent gun crimes.”

The first CGICs were established in the early 2000s, beginning with a pilot program in Chicago. Today there are over 35 CGICs nationwide, with at least one center in every ATF field division [2]. They are staffed by analysts from ATF along with personnel from other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

How Do CGICs Operate?

CGICs utilize a collaborative model, bringing together law enforcement agencies at all levels to collect, analyze, and share intelligence on crime guns. Here are some of the key functions and capabilities of CGICs:

• Collecting and consolidating data from multiple sources related to recovered crime guns, including shell casings, weapons types, and more.
• Entering ballistics evidence into ATF’s National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) to identify connections between crimes.
• Tracing firearms to identify sources and patterns.
• Developing investigative leads and disseminating actionable intelligence to law enforcement agencies.
• Identifying trends, patterns, and potential threats involving crime guns.
• Providing real-time intelligence to officers responding to active shooter incidents.
• Mapping crime gun data to identify geographic patterns and potential traffickers.
• Conducting strategic analysis to understand criminal networks and gun trafficking operations.

A key focus is getting crime gun intelligence into the hands of investigators as quickly as possible. As ATF notes, “The faster shooters are identified, the sooner their criminal activity can be disrupted and prevented [1].”

The Role of CGICs in Law Enforcement

By leveraging the collective resources of federal, state and local agencies, CGICs aim to enhance law enforcement’s ability to identify, investigate and prosecute armed violent criminals. Some of the key ways CGICs support law enforcement objectives include:

• Providing actionable leads to help identify shooters and disrupt criminal activity.
• Supporting investigations by mapping connections between crimes, traffickers, and sources.
• Helping police executives develop effective gun crime reduction strategies.
• Enhancing officer safety by identifying armed violent offenders.
• Supporting prosecutions by tracing guns and providing intelligence.
• Identifying gaps and opportunities to improve gun crime intelligence.

By taking a collaborative, multi-agency approach, CGICs can accelerate the collection and analysis of crime gun data to get it into the hands of investigators faster. This real-time intelligence is critical for identifying shooters before they can re-offend.

Benefits of the CGIC Model

CGICs offer a range of benefits that support law enforcement efforts to combat gun crime and violence:

• Faster identification of shooters – By using NIBIN and multi-agency collaboration, CGICs accelerate the process of identifying firearm users.
• Disrupting criminal networks – Intelligence developed by CGICs helps map connections between traffickers, sources, and prohibited possessors.
• Linking crimes – Ballistics analysis connects crimes committed with the same gun across multiple jurisdictions.
• Targeted enforcement – CGIC intelligence allows agencies to focus resources on the most active shooters and traffickers.
• Officer safety – Tactical intelligence helps officers safely respond to incidents involving armed violent criminals.
• Proactive strategies – Data analysis supports development of effective gun crime reduction strategies.

By leveraging shared resources and capabilities, CGICs provide intelligence that no single agency could produce alone. This enhances law enforcement’s ability to identify and stop the small number of people responsible for a disproportionate amount of gun violence.

Challenges and Limitations

While CGICs offer significant benefits, they also face some key challenges and limitations:

• Staffing constraints – CGICs are dependent on personnel from participating agencies, which have competing priorities.
• Data gaps – Not all agencies input data into CGIC systems, resulting in an incomplete picture.
• Resource disparities – Smaller agencies may lack the staff and systems needed to fully utilize CGICs.
• Restricted access – Some data and intelligence products can only be shared with participating agencies.
• Unlinked crimes – Not all gun crimes result in usable ballistics evidence being recovered.
• Incomplete traces – Firearms traces are not successful in identifying a source in all cases.

While CGICs bring together resources from multiple agencies, there are still resource and information gaps that limit their effectiveness. Ongoing efforts to expand participation, improve data sharing, and provide access to systems and training for smaller agencies can help maximize the benefits of the CGIC model.

The Future of CGICs

In recent years, ATF and its law enforcement partners have been working to expand and enhance CGIC capabilities. Some key initiatives include:

• Establishing new regional CGICs to improve coverage across the country.
• Improving integration with fusion centers for broader information sharing.
• Upgrading technology infrastructure to enable faster collection, analysis, and sharing of crime gun data.
• Expanding access to CGIC capabilities for state and local agencies through training and resources.
• Enhancing CGIC analytics to better identify traffickers, patterns, and threats.
• Increasing participation in NIBIN across all levels of law enforcement.

Through these efforts, ATF aims to make CGICs an increasingly central part of law enforcement’s efforts to improve public safety and reduce violence. By leveraging crime gun intelligence and partnerships across agencies, CGICs offer a powerful model for data-driven policing strategies.

While challenges remain, CGICs have already demonstrated their value in providing the actionable intelligence needed to identify shooters, disrupt criminal networks, and prevent gun violence. Their role will likely continue growing as law enforcement agencies increasingly turn to intelligence-led policing approaches.