Database to boost gun crime fight

By Nick Tarry
BBC News

The programme will increase the ability to link firearms incidents

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is launching the National Ballistics Intelligence Service (NABIS) to help the fight against gun crime. But what is it and how will it work?

Official figures suggest gun crime has been falling, but firearm killings showed a slight rise in the most recent Home Office statistics and the government has pledged to tackle the problem.

"We are determined not to let violent offenders get away with wrecking lives by stopping them committing crimes in the first place... By 2011, we will have reduced serious violent crime, including gun and gang-related violence", Ms Smith has said.

To help the battle against gun crime, the Home Office has contributed £5.5m to set up NABIS.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) will cover the operating costs, which have been put at around £2.5m a year.

National database

The purpose of the new programme is to provide a national database of materials and equipment used in gun crime.

This database will contain information on all firearms, bullets, cartridge cases and forensic evidence recovered from every new relevant offence.

I would not have volunteered to work on this programme if I did not believe it really had the potential to save lives Det Ch Supt Paul James

It will be able to track a ballistic item from its discovery to its eventual destruction, after any investigations or prosecutions have been completed.

The details of legally-held firearms which are stolen will also be entered into it, and officers will have powers to seize such weapons for analysis if they suspect them to have been used in crime.

The service aims to enable the police to link various incidents involving firearms in 24 to 48 hours, regardless of where in the UK they are committed.

"The development of NABIS is potentially the most significant combined step forward that the agencies involved in law enforcement have taken," says programme manager Detective Chief Superintendent Paul James.

He is on secondment from Avon and Somerset Police, where he has more than 20 years' experience investigating gun crime. He feels the creation of a national database is overdue.

"It has long been a frustration for those tasked with investigating this most serious of crimes that there was no real co-ordination of ballistic and tactical intelligence.

"I would not have volunteered to work on this programme if I did not believe it really had the potential to save lives."

NABIS is based in Birmingham, in office space provided by West Midlands Police, and there are also three regional facilities which conduct test-firing of specific weapons and analyse and link forensic evidence to known crimes.

Regional hubs

All laboratories are equipped with the latest technology, NABIS says, and the information which results is fully integrated with existing police databases such as the Police National Computer, the Sex Offenders Register and National Firearms Licensing Management.

Det Ch Supt James says it is also essential for ballistic material recovered from a crime scene to be taken quickly for analysis at the nearest regional hub.

The hubs will be located around the UK, in places which have historically accounted for most gun crime, such as Manchester, the Midlands and London.

They are overseen by NABIS's lead forensic scientist, Martin Parker, who has just returned from secondment to Interpol in France.

"There have never been sufficient firearms experts, facilities or integrated systems to satisfy the law enforcement community's need for fast-track firearms intelligence. This programme aims to address this need," he says.