Best Practices for Crime Gun Intelligence
In our experience working closely with the ATF and CGIC units across the country, we recognize that there are four key components involved in an evidence-based approach to solving gun crime. These include:
1.
Comprehensive Collection
2.
Timeliness in Actions and Information
3.
Investigative Follow-Up
4.
Feedback and outcomes
CHALLENGES FOR TRADITIONAL GUN CRIME MANAGEMENT
Prioritizing and Tracking NIBIN Leads
Manually inputting a large volume of NIBIN leads is time-consuming and error-prone
Processes to determine linkages across associated cases are inefficient
No systematic way to prioritize and track case assignments, workflows, and follow-ups across siloed applications
Limited operational insight, reporting, and actionable feedback to share with stakeholders
BEST PRACTICES IN ACTION
ShotSpotter GCM Solves the
Most Common Challenges in Shooting Cases
ShotSpotter GCM (Gun Crime Management) helps law enforcement solve many of the challenges they face. Adhering to core CGIC principles, ShotSpotter GCM makes it easier to collaborate with internal and external stakeholders as well as capture and quantify key information needed for a successful outcome.
How ShotSpotter GCM is a Force Multiplier For Investigative Units:
Import NIBIN leads to eliminate manual entry:
Immediately identify associated gun crime cases:
Centralized system prioritizes and tracks cases showing status and necessary follow-ups:
Drive operational insights, satisfy reporting requirements, and provide feedback to stakeholders:
Addressing gun crime requires systematic, organized, and focused investigative effort. Putting a tool like ShotSpotter Gun Crime Management in the hands of our nation’s criminal investigators will make them more efficient and effective at what they do. That will lead to more solved cases, more prosecutable arrests, and more serial offenders off the streets.
Tom Chittum Vice President, Analytics and Forensic Services, ShotSpotter (former ATF Associate Deputy Director)
ShotSpotter GCM Product FAQs
ShotSpotter GCM is a gun crime tracking and analysis case management tool useful for law enforcement personnel who are involved in gun crime investigations. The cloud-based system enables agencies to better capture, track, analyze and collaborate on incidents that involve firearms so they can be more efficient and effective. ShotSpotter GCM creates a single, secure digital folder for each shooting or firearm-related incident, providing an intelligence dossier on everything related to a particular firearm and allowing an agency to track the life cycle of a gun using CGIC best practices.
- Build stronger cases by identifying underlying relationships with link analysis
- Prioritize and track NIBIN leads to solve gun-related crimes
- Strengthen collaboration among the investigative team and crime gun analysists
- Report on needed statistics to grant providers (e.g. BJA)
- Generate feedback for all involved parties (patrol, investigators, analysts, etc.), providing greater transparency across the agency
The system centers around 5 key components:
- Gun Incidents – including collecting basic ground truth information for shooting, evidence tracking of firearms or ballistics
- NIBIN Import – scans an IBIS NIBIN Lead report and associates the information back to the GCM case folder including associated prior incidents
- Operational Insight – shares gun crime trends and statistics with key stakeholders and allows for generation of monthly reporting to help in fulfilling BJA requirements
- Link Analysis – visually sees how this gun crime incident relates to other cases and the people, vehicles, and locations associated with them
- ShotSpotter RespondTM Integration – allows for quick GCM case creation from a Respond alert
- ShotSpotter InvestigateTM is a SaaS case management solution that helps law enforcement agencies achieve higher clearance rates for any crime type.
- COPLINK X is an investigative lead generation tool using the largest network of criminal justice information to create immediate case momentum.
No. Although there is a tight integration between the two products, GCM can be utilized as a stand-alone system for any agency that is interested in tracking gun crime and firearms in their jurisdiction and creating associations of incidents from the same gun.
The system includes a robust suite of reports:
- Dashboard reports quickly inform users through display of graphs, charts, and pin maps.
- Operational reports provide detailed lists of incidents and events and allow the user to drill into the details.
- Report widgets can be easily added to the interface to provide snippets of information and keep key indicators front and center.
- Link analysis shows how various GCM cases, ballistics leads, firearms, suspects and incidents are related either within the same agency or to outside agencies.
There is a tiered annual subscription fee based on the size of the agency that includes 24x7x365 customer support and best practices consulting assistance. There is also a one-time set up fee that includes provisioning the account, agency data integrations if needed, and training.
Yes. GCM is built upon the powerful ShotSpotter Investigate case management engine. As a customer you can convert your GCM license into a full Investigate license at any time.
ShotSpotter takes security and compliance very seriously and the ShotSpotter GCM product adheres to the following best practices:
- Runs on AWS GovCloud, which is CJIS, FedRAMP, ISO 27001, SOC2, SOC3, and DoD SRG certified
- Multi-factor authorization (MFA) is mandated for all users
- Compliant with 28 CFR Part 23
GCM has robust proactive alerting and automated notification features.
- Each user has a system inbox to send and receive messages and alerts.
- The system can also alert users via text and email about new assignments and pending or overdue action items.
- Supervisors can perform case reviews and automatically trigger notifications about case status and any new tasks.
- The system automatically notifies the investigative team when leads are added to a case.
The deployment process can be completed with just a few steps. A ShotSpotter representative will set up your agency’s account in our secure cloud environment and then work with your system administrator to complete the initial configuration to meet your requirements. The system can be up and running for end users to begin casework the same day. Following initial configuration, your agency administrator and any secondary admins you appoint will have full capability to manage the highly configurable system and support your end users. Meanwhile, ShotSpotter’s support team remains ready to assist whenever needed.
