CLEVELAND — U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a new Northeast Ohio Crime Gun Intelligence Center (CGIC) in Cleveland during a press conference on Tuesday.
"No one in this country should have to live in fear of gun violence. No family and no community should have to grieve the loss of their loved ones to senseless violence," Garland said during the press conference. "That is why we are here today."
The announcement of a new CGIC brought together federal, state, and local authorities under one roof. Garland says the center will focus exclusively on investigating and preventing gun violence.
"When it comes to investigating gun crimes, every day matters," he added. "Every day, another lead can run dry. Every day, a repeat shooter can shatter another family and another community."
The new center is one of three in Ohio and 54 across the U.S., according to the Department of Justice's website.
"We are all joining together because the CGIC approach has been proven repeatedly to work," Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Director Steve Dettelbach, a Cleveland native, said.
Dettelbach told 3News it provides a way for law enforcement agencies to share evidence quickly and follow the guns, linking them to violence across cities and counties. The outcome they are looking for is to identify violent criminals, investigate, and prosecute them.
"CGICs stop the next shooting, CJICs make homicide cases, CGICs focus our attention on a small number of individuals who are driving down violent crime," he explained.
Acting U.S. Attorney Rebecca Lutzko for the Northern District Of Ohio also said, "Investigators at all law enforcement levels will be better and more quickly able to connect the dots."
Cleveland Deputy Police Chief Ali Pillow agreed, stating, "Before CGIC, before this kind of intelligence was involved, it might take us months to link certain crimes with weapons. Now that intelligence is available within hours or weeks at most."
Pillow says their department has been using the center for months. He attributes part of the recent decrease in gun violence in Cleveland to the work happening there.
Numbers from the Cleveland Division of Police show that from January through May of this year, homicides with a firearm are down 33% compared to the same time last year. Robberies with a firearm were down around 10% during the same period, and felony assaults with a firearm were also down nearly 10%.
Garland pointed to the recent mass shooting in Akron that still has no arrests to show this center is needed.
"Akron, like many communities, has way too much gun crime, and this is a really important step in that regard," Akron Police Chief Brian Harding said. "The work that's being done here is really important and can make an impact on us."
Garland also talked about the tragic shooting death of Euclid Officer Jacob Derbin. Euclid Police Chief Scott Meyer was also in attendance at Tuesday's press conference at the new center.
"The consequence of these things can be a 23-year-old hero like Officer Derbin being murdered in the process of trying to serve his community," Meyer lamented.
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