VIOLENT CRIME REDUCTION
ATF’s Violent Crime Impact Teams (VCIT) initiative works with local law enforcement to identify, arrest and prosecute the most violent criminals in designated cities. VCIT teams consisting of ATF and other federal agents, state and local police and federal and state prosecutors have achieved significant success in reducing homicide rates in the cities where they operate. VCIT currently is under way in 23 cities -- Albuquerque, Atlanta, Baltimore, Baton Rouge, Camden, N.J., Columbus, Ohio, Fresno, Calif., Greensboro, N.C., Hartford, Houston, Laredo, Texas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Richmond, Va., Tampa, Tucson, Tulsa and Washington – and ATF will expand the number to 25 by the end of FY 2006. From the program’s inception through April 6, 2006, VCIT teams made more than 9,000 federal and state arrests and recovered more than 8,800 firearms.

In FY 2005, ATF investigated 1,270 fire and explosives incidents that had resulted in the deaths of or injuries to 352 people and property losses in excess of $470 million. ATF’s Certified Fire Investigator (CFI) Program is unique in federal law enforcement and currently has 83 special agent CFIs. In response to explosive incidents, ATF’s explosives enforcement officers (EEOs) have unique technical capabilities in explosives and bomb disposal, and ATF’s special agent certified explosives specialists (SACES) are highly trained and have developed an unmatched level of expertise in post-blast analysis. ATF has SACES based in 50 States, Puerto Rico, Guam, Canada, Mexico and Colombia.

ATF is responsible for enforcing federal criminal laws relating to alcohol and tobacco diversion and trafficking. ATF’s investigative efforts are directed at reducing the source of funding to criminal and terrorist organizations, and stemming the loss of revenue to affected states and the federal government. In 2005, ATF conducted the largest tobacco seizure in its history, measured in volume and value, and seized overall a record $7.3 million in currency and real property valued at $2.1 million.

PROTECTING THE PUBLIC
At the end of FY 2005, there were some 106,000 federal firearms licensees (FFL) in the United States authorized to conduct commerce in firearms. ATF performed more than 12,000 firearms licensee inspections. ATF’s Federal Firearms Licensing Center processed 13,236 applications for new firearms licenses and 26,749 applications for license renewals. Also in FY 2005, ATF industry operations investigators helped ensure the lawful storage of explosive materials by completing more than 3,786 explosives inspections and detecting 1,821 explosives industry public safety violations that were corrected. ATF processed 1,958 applications for new explosives licenses and 1,426 applications to renew existing licenses.

OTHER ATF RESOURCES AND ASSETS

NIBIN -- ATF provides investigative support to its state and local partners through a leadership role in the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN), which allows federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to image and compare crime gun evidence. NIBIN currently has 228 sites located throughout the United States, including Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. During FY 2005, NIBIN partner agencies imaged 180,729 bullets and casings into the database, resulting in 3,426 “hits,” or matches.

Gun Tracing – ATF’s Comprehensive Crime Gun Tracing Initiative is the largest operation of its kind in the world. ATF's National Tracing Center (NTC) processed approximately 265,800 trace requests of crime guns in 2005. The NTC stores information concerning multiple sales of firearms, suspect guns and firearms with obliterated serial numbers and is the only repository for all records of FFLs that have gone out of business. BATS – ATF’s Bomb Arson Tracking System allows state, local and other federal law enforcement agencies in the United States to share information about bomb and arson cases and incidents. Participants receive a user ID and password from ATF to enable law enforcement agencies to capture, store and exchange information such as the type of incident, target, date and location.

DFuze -- DFuze is an international and multilingual explosives database that ATF and other international law enforcement agencies use to share information and intelligence on explosives incidents, devices and methods, terrorist groups and firearms. By allowing members to share data, DFuze can effectively diminish the common terrorist threat and serve as a potent tool in the global war on terrorism. So far, ATF, Britain, Colombia, Hong Kong, Mexico, Northern Ireland and Singapore participate in DFuze.

U.S. Bomb Data Center – The USBDC maintains the country’s most comprehensive collection of data describing fire and explosives related incidents. ATF is the sole agency to manage all Department of Justice databases containing arson and explosives incident data. The USBDC contains more than 160,000 arson and explosives incidents reports obtained from federal, state, and local fire service/law enforcement agencies.

National Response Teams (NRTs) – ATF maintains four National Response Teams consisting of highly trained special agents, forensic chemists and professional support staff who can be deployed within 24 hours to major explosion and fire scenes anywhere in the United States. The NRT was activated 13 times in FY 2005. Since 1978, the team has responded to conduct crime scene analysis and cause and origin investigation of 601 fires and explosives incidents.

International Response Team (IRT) – The ATF International Response Team participates with the Department of State to provide technical and investigation assistance in international explosives and fire incidents. The IRT has responded to 26 incidents since its inception, most recently in 2005 when it was deployed to St. George’s, Grenada, to assist in the investigation of a fire at the Grenada Boys Secondary School and a suspected device at the Prime Minister’s residence in which there were no deaths or injuries.

Explosives and Accelerant Detection Canines -- There are 98 ATF-certified explosives detection canine teams working throughout the United States. Thirty-two of these teams include ATF special agent handlers, while the other 64 are deployed to state, local, or other federal agencies. To date, ATF has trained more than 350 explosives detection canines in 16 countries. ATF also trains accelerant detection canines, 42 of them in FY 2005 for state and local fire departments.

Training – ATF is in the forefront of firearms and explosives training, providing instruction to other federal, state, local and international law enforcement agencies in the United States and around the world. Since 2001, ATF’s National Center for Explosives Training and Research has trained almost 6,000 bomb technicians and investigators in explosive disposal and investigative techniques. ATF provides explosives training to the new Iraqi Police Service and at the International Law Enforcement Academies in Botswana, El Salvador, Hungary and Thailand. In cooperation with the U.S. Army, ATF also trains Army explosives units prior to their deployment to Iraq.

National Laboratory Services – ATF maintains three national laboratory facilities, in Maryland, Georgia and California, where firearms examiners, fingerprint specialists and forensic chemists provide scientific expertise and support for the agency’s investigations. The National Laboratory Center (NLC) in Maryland includes the ATF Forensic Science Laboratory and the Fire Research Laboratory, the first facility in the world dedicated to fire scene investigations.