Reducing Firearm Crime by Balancing People, Processes and Technology
Posted by Pete Gagliardi on Tue, Nov 22, 2011
The following quotes are taken from the Chicago Sun-Time article "Top cop McCarthy tells aldermen of plan to close three stations, redeploy officers".
They are attributed to Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy and his Chief of Detectives Tom Byrne.
“It takes between six months and eight months to get back ballistic hits from the [state] crime lab. That’s a big problem for me because that’s basically past history. We need real-time turnaround,” McCarthy said.
“If we can get ballistics matches in real-time, [Chief of Detectives] Tom Byrne is gonna have a much easier job solving those crimes. They’ll lead us to who has the guns.”
In addition to being “spot-on” accurate in terms of the value of “timely” information for solving gun related crimes, their statements also give rise to the discussion of another issue related to the fact that crime solving today involves the collaboration of many stakeholders and requires a careful balance of people, processes and technology.
When it comes to ballistics data from fired ammunition components found at crime scenes, different stakeholders can have different needs. For example, forensic scientists processing ballistics data for evidentiary purposes in court must exercise careful due diligence in following certain protocols. The use and value of ballistics data as evidence in court is well established and is perhaps the use most people are familiar with.
Yet police investigators also rightly view ballistics data in terms of producing the actionable intelligence or the investigative leads needed to identify a suspect in the first place.
With the technology available today in networks like the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN), police can use ballistics data to readily link crimes, guns and suspects across geographical separated areas (e.g. cities, states and countries) in effect preventing criminals from escaping detection by crossing into another jurisdiction. Police recognize that in order for this information to be of most use – it must be generated in a timely manner.
Two stakeholders – two different missions and perspectives – add the prosecutors into the equation and we now have three missions and perspectives running on three separate tracks towards the same goal – bringing violent criminals to justice.
Obviously there are even more stakeholders, the public administrators and legislators who must provide and manage the policy solutions and resources to enable effective crime fighting today and to everyone one of us who are affected by crime and violence.
The article above is an example of the first step – the communication between stakeholders.
The solution to the issues raised in the article will come when the key stakeholders sit down to think and act together to find a way in which to balance the people, processes and technology needed to achieve the violence reduction goal they all seek.