CINCINNATI — Cincinnati Police say officers have filed criminal charges in 79% of the city's homicides so far in 2022.
"The closure rates within the homicide unit has increased significantly," CPD Lt. Col. Mike John said.
CPD shared that information Wednesday during a news conference discussing the impact of the city's 9-month-old Crime Gun Intelligence Center.
Local, state, and federal law enforcement officers and prosecutors work together in a renovated city-owned building where they share information and resources in an effort to solve gun-related crimes as soon as possible, according to law enforcement officials at the news conference.
"This is a collaboration focused on the immediate collection of ballistic and gun evidence and the processing of intelligence information," John said. "We use that to identify shooters to take them off the streets to make the City of Cincinnati a safer place."
The FBI has not released national data for police department homicide closure rates for year-to-date 2022 or 2021.
Law enforcement "cleared" about half of the homicides in 2020, according to data police provided to the FBI.
In 2020, CPD says it filed charges in 69% of the city's homicides.
Federal officials say investigators are showing a strong commitment to getting gun-related crime evidence loaded into the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) law enforcement database as soon as possible.
"We're talking 24, 48, 72 hours," ATF Special Agent in Charge Daryl McComick said. "This gives us time to disrupt that shooting cycle."
NIBIN technology compares images ballistic evidence to other images in the database, according to the NIBIN website.
"Trained NIBIN technicians then conduct a correlation review of these results, identifying NIBIN leads or potential links or associations from the same firearm," according to the NIBIN website.
But the key to the center's early success, according to law enforcement officials, is the collaboration that results from working next to each other and sharing a common goal.
"The tool is the cohesiveness, the coordination," United States Attorney Ken Parker said. "Those who wish to bring us ill will need to understand that law enforcement is working to become stronger and more coordinated to address those who would like to cause harm and wreak havoc in our communities."
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