NIBIN Van: CPD's new tool to fight crime

FOX 32 NEWS - Chicago police on Monday showed off one of their newest tools in the fight to track illegal guns and solve shootings.

It’s called a NIBIN ((Nye-Binn) Van, which stands for ‘National Integrated Ballistic Information Network.’ It helps police trace shell cartridges and weapons in a fraction of the time that it once did.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Monday spoke to 86 new police recruits, on a day where he focused on new efforts to reduce violence. He began at the DuSable Museum, stressing the need for police to be aware of the culture around them, and then finished with CPD's newest recruits.

“So the goal: more police on the street. Kids, guns and gangs off the street,” the mayor said.

The mayor's efforts came after another violent weekend -- four people shot and killed and 43 wounded. One of the fatalities was a 17-year-old boy who got involved in a shootout at a gas station in the 5200 block of South Western Avenue.

Rebecca Rivera lives nearby.

“It gets worse and worse. The kids can't even come out and play, there's always shootings around here,” Rivera said.

The feds are also chipping in to the new public safety initiative, with a new ATF van that will be able to run ballistics checks through a national data base right from the scene of a crime.

Senator Dick Durbin was aware that the ATF van being used in Baltimore and asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to re-assign it to Chicago.

”This high technology, people are getting used to it, watching it on television, NCIS and all the other programs. And they assume everybody has it everywhere, not true,” Durbin said.

“What it does is, instead of having to wait weeks or months to get that evidence back, they can do it in hours, so it helps us connect the dots on different shootings,” said Supt. Eddie Johnson.

The van's been in Chicago for three weeks. It was used after the June 16th shooting of two teenaged girls on the playground at Warren Elementary School. Three suspects were arrested.

But as of now, the ATF van is only expected to be deployed in Chicago for another month or so.

Police say the van has already helped them create more than 30 leads in the aftermath of shootings, far more than were created in Baltimore.