New Northeast Ohio intelligence center in Cleveland aims to stop gun violence

Federal officials are taking aim at gun violence in Northeast Ohio.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland was in town Tuesday to announce the opening of a new Crime Gun Intelligence Center in Cleveland. Such centers are operated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which operates over 60 of them across the country.

Last year, the online tracker Gun Violence Archive noted over 43,000 deaths nationwide by gun violence and over 8,000 so far this year. The U.S. surgeon general declared gun violence a public health crisis Tuesday morning.

Northeast Ohio officials hope the creation of a collaborative intelligence center in Cleveland will help target gun violence across the region.

"CGICs help investigators generate leads to get shooters off the streets and dismantle trafficking networks that provide violent criminals with their guns," Garland said.

The announcement comes on the two-year anniversary of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which heightened background checks for firearms purchasers under the age of 21. It also created new criminal offenses for illegal firearms trafficking as well as for unlicensed firearms distribution and manufacturing.

Summit County crime cited

U.S. Attorney Rebecca C. Lutzko for the Northern District of Ohio said "crime guns" are often used in offenses across multiple locations, sometimes even by different perpetrators, due to sales on illegal gun markets.

Lutzko cited an example of a gun used for violent crime in Cleveland that made its way to Summit County.

"These crimes are done without regard for county lines or where one city ends and another begins," Lutzko said.

ATF Director Steven Dettelbach, a former U.S. attorney in Cleveland, said these acts are done without regard for the law either, with 60% of recipients of trafficked firearms being convicted felons or other such people prohibited from purchasing firearms legally.

What is a Crime Gun Intelligence Center?

Each Crime Gun Intelligence Center houses data technology, including the ATF's National Integrated Ballistic and Information Network and eTrace systems. The systems help better identify registered and unregistered firearms used in shootings as well as perpetrators themselves.

Integrating these technologies in intelligence centers aims to drive clearance rates up so violent crime rates fall as law enforcement has a more efficient time tracking perpetrators of gun-related crimes. Further, the Northeast Ohio center will be the first to be located within jurisdiction of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.

Over 30 agencies on federal, state and local levels will collaborate in the Northeast Ohio center, according to the U.S. Attorney General's Office. Prosecutors will also be included in the focus on ballistics testing and firearms tracing through the center so that charging perpetrators is done more swiftly and accurately.

"It's a game changer," Dettelbach said.

Dettelbach said the Northeast Ohio center is partnering with Summit, Lorain, Lake, Medina and Cuyahoga counties, which are offering the collaboration of their officials, prosecutors and law enforcement. However, other counties like Stark can still use its resources by sending weapons or other evidence there for research.

A news release about the efforts indicates the Akron, Barberton, Canton and University of Akron police departments; and the Portage and Summit County sheriff's offices will be supporting the center as well through ATF task forces.

Canton Police Chief John Gabbard said the center will help expand the ability to collect intelligence and information.

"What really matters is the work done every day in our city using that shared intelligence — along with what we collect — to improve the lives of Canton's residents," he said. "As previously reported, Canton's gun violence and overall violent crime significantly decreased last year, and that decline continues. Our strategies are effective."

The new center will help long-term, second-level investigations tracking guns used in multiple crimes in different communities, he said.

"I think the relationships established through those tracings will help solve violent crimes and reduce the number of illegal firearms in Ohio, and that can only have a positive effect on our community," Gabbard said. "They focused the center near Cleveland for a reason, as the need and volume will obviously be greater there. As for our city, I will sit on the executive committee, and Canton will share any statistics and intelligence requested to improve the CGIC processes."

Supreme Court gun rulings and funding

The Supreme Court has substantially weighed in on the gun violence issue this year, overturning a Trump-era ban on weapon attachments that increase semi-automatic weapons' rates of fire and upholding a ban on domestic abusers' abilities to purchase firearms.

However, Garland and Dettelbach both said Congress has endangered these efforts by proposing a cut of approximately $1 billion to the Department of Justice. Dettelbach said this would not only stifle the growth of the Crime Gun Intelligence Center system across the country but also would force some centers to shut down. Garland called the proposed cut "unacceptable."

Both emphasized the importance of collaboration with local officials to keep operations running efficiently.

"Further, deeper cuts to ATF threaten the closings of facilities like this CGIC and leave our communities less protected and less safe," Dettelbach said. "We cannot let that happen."

Keeping the crime decline going

Since the passing of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, Garland said, there have been 525 charges made for acts of illegally purchasing and trafficking firearms, as well as over 800 prevented purchases of firearms by young people prohibited from owning them.

Garland said FBI statistics show a decrease in violent crime by 15% and murder by 26%. Violent crimes in Cleveland committed with a firearm have decreased by 33% as well. These efforts have all coalesced into the largest one-year decrease in homicides in the past 50 years.

"Those declines are more than just statistics," Garland said. "They represent people who are still here, who are still alive for their families and contribute to their communities."

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Crime Gun Intelligence Center opens in Cleveland