Adopted at the 119th Annual Conference
San Diego, CA
October 3, 2012

Support for Additional NIBIN Funding at ATF
Submitted by: Firearms Committee
FC.027.a12

WHEREAS, the ATF National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN) has vitally assisted state, local, and tribal law enforcement in the examination of ballistics comparisons and has played a role in reducing the nation's crime rate; and

WHEREAS, state, local, and tribal law enforcement are on the frontlines against firearms crime; and

WHEREAS, ATF maintains this system of 138 state and local agencies who have over 195 IBIS machines on which they collect digital images; and

WHEREAS, state, local, and tribal law enforcement need a national, over?arching federal organization to oversee and maintain the NIBIN program; and

WHEREAS, the NIBIN system currently maintains a database of more than 2 million acquisitions; and

WHEREAS, the NIBIN system has allowed the users of the system to establish over 45,000 links of unique crime scene investigations; and

WHEREAS, the NIBIN program recently underwent a $10,000,000 program reduction by the Office of Management and Budget; and

WHEREAS, this program reduction was proposed "to fund higher priorities and achieve cost savings" and because "participants and customers are primarily non?Federal government law enforcement entities"; and

WHEREAS, due to this program reduction, ATF has recently released over 30 NIBIN contractors who provided valuable assistance on the NIBIN program; and

WHEREAS, due to this program reduction, ATF has recently removed 40 systems from State and local partners that had participated in the NIBIN program; and

WHEREAS, this NIBIN technology routinely needs to be refreshed, upgraded, and deployed to State and local law enforcement which is costly; now, therefore be it

RESOLVED, that the International Association of Chiefs of Police duly assembled at it 119th Annual Conference in San Diego, California, calls upon Congress to approve a supplemental funding package that will immediately restore the $10,000,000 in funding reductions to the ATF NIBIN program.