Any effective Crime Gun Intelligence Program relies on the expeditious processing of firearms-related evidence to achieve the goal of intelligence lead, firearms-based investigations.  The possible intelligence gained through National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) Leads loses its value the longer it takes to identify the associations and pass that information to investigators.  In NIBIN processing, TIMELINESS is crucial.  As law enforcement agencies across the country begin to establish their own NIBIN sites outside of the lab environment, many are faced with a recurring concern: how to implement a timely NIBIN process that coincides with the needs for DNA, latent prints, and further firearms processing by forensic scientists and still meets prosecutorial needs for later trials.  

This presentation will discuss the challenges we faced in making a department-wide cultural change in evidence handling and the partnerships required to implement new evidence screening and processing strategies in support of CGIC goals.