Public Information Campaigns
Public information campaigns can enhance community outreach strategies and encourage residents to contact law enforcement when they hear shots fired. These campaigns should emphasize the CGIC’s fair and impartial policing strategies and the use of science and technology to disrupt the cycle of violent gun crime. Additionally, campaigns could highlight the CGIC’s focus on identifying the most prolific and active trigger pullers in the community to remove them from the streets and prosecute them for their crimes. Public information campaigns can also help address gun theft issues within jurisdictions. This can be achieved by raising awareness about gun theft, particularly in vehicles, and providing the community with practical solutions to prevent them from becoming victims of crime.
Local News Stories
Local news stories can be an effective way to reach a broad audience and inform the community about the CGIC's work. This could be in the form of sharing arrests on gun offenses or taking an in-depth look at the CGIC’s operations. As stated previously, it is crucial to ensure that all CGIC stakeholders agree on the amount of information shared with journalists and the community.
Save-A-Casing Programs
The Save-A-Casing program originated in Wichita, Kansas as a way for responsible gun owners to help law enforcement combat gun crime. The program encourages gun owners to collect and keep spent cartridge casings in an envelope with the make, model, and serial number of the firearm. If the gun is stolen, they can turn those shell casings over to law enforcement to be entered into NIBIN. This allows law enforcement to know if the stolen gun was used in a crime or recovered. That could lead to the recovery of the gun for the owner, at the discretion of the law enforcement agency. The program has also had secondary effects of increasing awareness of gun thefts. Some agencies have also provided gun safes and locks to residents as a part of this program.
We launched the Save-A-Casing program to give our community a simple, yet impactful, way to support gun crime investigations. By holding onto a spent casing, citizens help our Crime Gun Intelligence Center link stolen firearms to violent crimes – getting investigators the answers they need, faster.
Brian Ramirez
Deputy Chief of Police, Casa Grande Police Department