INDIANAPOLIS — Indianapolis is bracing for another record year of murders, but now police are starting to piece together unsolved cases with the help of guns recovered at crime scenes.
Just this week, IMPD said its Crime Gun Task Force helped Carmel Police catch a teen wanted in connection with an armed robbery, confinement, theft and carrying a gun without a license case.
Earlier this month, an 18-year-old was arrested for firing shots at a Ben Davis High School football game. Police say that same gun was used by a 14-year-old in a shooting and attempted carjacking just weeks before.
In September, IMPD traced a gun pulled on officers to three different crimes, including a double homicide.
“It’s very much like a puzzle, and each incident that we have there’s a small piece that’s put together to form a larger picture,” said IMPD Maj. Matthew Thomas.
Thomas said it started with the Indianapolis Crime Gun Intelligence Center in 2019. Last summer, a new law expanded it across county lines forming a regional task force for central Indiana.
“Being able to have an incident happen in an adjoining county and you have this entire team available that has a wealth of information that’s been gathered already on a crime gun, put that into play immediately and you are able to increase our opportunities for prevention,” Thomas said.
It all starts with crime gun evidence at a scene. That evidence is then processed and entered into a database known as NIBIN - the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network.
From there, the database generates leads by matching unique markings from a particular gun to ballistic evidence from other crimes. Each lead is then assigned to an investigator and an intelligence analyst.
“Through this team, they assess all the information available and are able to prioritize every lead for field work and follow-up investigations,” said Thomas. “It’s about having access to more information and a more complete picture. In the past, we would maybe have a perspective, a lens through a single incident.”
In 2019, IMPD also worked on improving the process for analyzing recovered firearms so information can be entered into NIBIN quicker.
“In the past, we would have a delay, six or eight months, before we were able to determine that a crime gun was used in multiple incidents. Now, we are talking about a couple of days,” Thomas said.
The Crime Gun Task Force currently connects police departments across Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Marion, Morgan, Johnson and Shelby counties.
As of August, they've seized 717 guns, arrested 813 people, sent more than 24,000 entries to NIBIN and followed up on almost 4,000 different leads.
Even with this new tracking technology, investigators say they still need the community’s support.
“A vehicle description or a partial license plate number is critical evidence that ultimately may solve a homicide investigation later on,” said Thomas.
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