The General Assembly approved legislation introduced by East Providence Representative Jennifer Boylan and Senate Majority Whip David P. Tikoian (D-Dist. 22, Smithfield, Lincoln, North Providence) that its sponsors argue would aid law enforcement in solving gun-related crimes by taking advantage of a national ballistics analysis database.

The measure, which passed in the House 49-21 and 34-1 in the Rhode Island Senate, now moves to the governor’s office.

This legislation (2025-H 5130A, 2025-S 0059A) would require police departments to provide ballistic crime evidence or test-fired casings to the State Crime Lab or a qualified law enforcement agency for ballistics examination. It would also require that the information be entered into the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) whenever they suspect that a gun has been used in a crime or if they have a bullet casing from a crime scene.

“It would be unthinkable for law enforcement to arrest a person suspected of committing a violent crime and not take their fingerprints,” said Rep. Boylan (D-Dist. 66, Barrington, East Providence). “The National Integrated Ballistic Information Network is the ballistic evidence equivalent, and it must be used universally to get the maximum benefit for our police officers to connect and solve crimes.”

NIBIN is a database system that allows federal, state and local law enforcement to match fired cartridge casings to the guns from which they were fired, making it easier for law enforcement to connect multiple crime scenes and catch shooters. The system takes ballistic evidence from firearms and cross-references that evidence with other evidence residing in the database, looking for likely matches. Use of NIBIN indicates that the recovered casings were likely fired from the same firearm. This allows investigators to develop a more complete picture of what happened and who was involved, as well as linking crime scenes connected by a common gun.

“When NIBIN is used universally by law enforcement, maximum benefits to solve and connect crimes are realized,” said Sen. Tikoian, a retired State Police major and former North Providence Police chief. “The ATF maintains NIBIN in their database at no charge to their law enforcement partners. It’s a critical part of ATF’s crime gun intelligence center.”

Rep. Boylan first became aware of the underused potential of NIBIN when she served on the Working Group for Gun Safety, convened by then-Governor Raimondo in 2018. The group, composed of 51 members representing federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, attorneys, educators, veterans, academics, students and experts in the fields of public and behavioral health, noted that while some departments used NIBIN consistently, statewide use of the database was inconsistent and not always timely enough to be useful to criminal investigation.

Prior to August 2022, the only NIBIN machine in Rhode Island was located at the State Crime Lab. The attorney general’s office now has a machine, giving police departments an additional option to run NIBIN analysis.

“One of my office’s top priorities is curbing gun violence in the state — and a crucial piece of that effort is maintaining a uniform approach to ballistics testing,” said Attorney General Peter F. Neronha. “NIBIN tracing is incredibly effective in helping law enforcement identify the suspects of violent crime, and similarly effective in helping my office prosecute perpetrators.”

“From my extensive experience working with NIBIN, I know that the proactive use and comprehensive analysis of ballistic evidence is likely to produce information of the highest probable value,” said Pete Gagliardi, who has over 30 years of experience with the ATF NIBIN program and is now a consultant on matters related to crime gun intelligence. “This critical tool enables law enforcement to link crimes, guns, and suspects across cities, counties, and states. Congratulations to Rhode Island for being the tenth state to pass a law requiring police to comprehensively collect and process ballistic evidence through the ATF NIBIN.”

The bill would also require law enforcement to submit information about crime guns to the ATF for tracing, including make, model and serial number. This allows the ATF to track the movement of crime guns throughout the country to identify illegal firearm trafficking.

Recent use of NIBIN helped solve the murder case of Miya Brophy-Baerman, who was only 24 years old at the time of her death. She was shot and killed while standing on a street in Olneyville after a party. For months, no one was arrested for the murder.

On Dec. 12, 2021, Providence police made a routine motor vehicle stop, in which the suspect was a passenger. Officers found a backpack that had been thrown from the car; inside was a ghost gun. Investigators ran the ballistics through the NIBIN database, which indicated that the gun was a possible match to the gun used in Brophy-Baermann's shooting. Further analysis confirmed the findings and that the spent casings from the shooting scene had been expelled from the gun.

This led to putting Miya Brophy-Baermann's killer behind bars.