Quad Cities police departments teaming up to combat gun violence

Police departments in the Quad Cities are teaming up to combat gun violence.

Darren Gault, Chief of Police for the city of Moline announced Monday morning that the department will be dedicating additional resources to investigate crimes involving guns.

"It's my department's priority that we start investigating gun crimes more aggressively so I've directed our staff to create a gun crime unit and we're gonna be dedicating more resources to investigating gun crimes," Gault says.

He tells TV6 over the past 10 years nationwide, there has been an increase in gun violence, but says Quad Cities-area agencies are working to protect the community in solving crimes that are committed by the use of a gun.

Gault explains Davenport Police Department has offered Moline Police to be a part of the use of the

technology.

NIBIN, the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, works by helping departments solve cases more quickly.

Departments utilizing the technology can receive ballistics results as soon as days or even hours, where it formerly could take between 4 and 8 months to get results back.

In a recent interview with TV6's Montse Ricossa

how their department used to send shell casings to an area near Des Moines and wait months to get results back.

Gault says Moline Police are looking forward to sharing this technology to investigate gun crimes in a more timely manner.

He says, "With our partners at the Davenport Police Department who are offering us to be a part of the use of this technology, I think it is important for us to get on board right away."

Gault tells TV6 the new gun crime unit within Moline Police will work closely with their partners in other law enforcement agencies who are experiencing a rise in gun violence in the area.

He says he has spoken with East Moline Police, Rock Island Police Department and the Rock Island County States Attorney and the United States Attorney for the Central District of Illinois to pursue new methods and team up in their approach to combating gun crimes.

Gault says he is thankful to Davenport Police for their partnership and for allowing Moline Police to use the NIBIN technology.

He explains, "We're working hard right now to set those things up, to take advantage of the technology that Davenport has offered to the Quad Cities, so we want to work with our partners to take that state-of-the-art technology, use the data that we can gather from that, pair it together with analysis and good detective work."