After a Summer of Mass Shootings, Law Enforcement Asks State to Renew Ballistics Fudning for Public Safety Agencies

WAUKEGAN — Rep. Rita Mayfield, chair of the Illinois House Appropriations Public Safety Committee, said dozens of law enforcement agencies have contacted her to express support for House Bills 5750 and 5751, legislation that would provide $4 million for a critical state program to analyze cartridge casings recovered at crime scenes and casings recovered from crime guns. 

The NIBIN/ballistics grant program has provided $10 million in grants to local government public safety agencies in Illinois. The funding provides equipment and software that allow departments to access the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN). NIBIN stores and compares images of crime–related cartridge casings, allowing investigators to obtain critical information and advance their cases faster. Mayfield said, “Simply put, NIBIN is a program that quickly generates actionable leads linking shooting incidents.” 

House Bills 5750 and 5751 would renew the program by providing $4 million in fiscal year 2027 grants to the Illinois State Police and local law enforcement agencies for the purchase of NIBIN- related equipment and software. 

“There have been two mass shootings in Illinois in the last two weeks: one in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood last weekend and another two weeks ago in Chicago’s Washington Park,” Mayfield said. “On July 12, a targeted mass shooting in East St. Louis resulted in five fatalities among members of a single family. NIBIN is critical to these investigations, and police agencies are calling and writing to ask for immediate funding to purchase NIBIN technology and software services.” 

Among the agencies reaching out to Mayfield were the North Chicago Police Department and its Police Chief Laz Perez. 

“In 2025, North Chicago Police won a grant from the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board (ILETSB) for $25,000 to buy ballistics detection equipment. However, with no funding guaranteed yet for this fiscal year, our ballistics imaging efforts might not be able to continue because the North Chicago Police Department needs to buy supplies and continue technology contracts for our NIBIN equipment,” Perez wrote. 

Champaign Police Chief Timothy Tyler said his department worked to address unlawfully possessed firearms in 2024, with officers seizing or recovering 193 firearms through proactive enforcement activity. 

“Each weapon was processed as evidence and entered into NIBIN, a shared system that helps law enforcement agencies across the nation to analyze ballistic information to determine whether a firearm was used in incidents across multiple jurisdictions,” Tyler said. “This technology has helped reduce gun violence in Champaign, and funding should be available every year, and the program should be made permanent.” 

In South Suburban Harvey, Police Chief Dale Mitchell said, “We will need additional software and equipment soon to support our NIBIN ballistics efforts. In the cash strapped South Suburbs, lives depend on your legislation, and we hope it passes immediately.” 

The Northeastern Illinois Regional Crime Laboratory in Mundelein provides forensic services, including ballistic detection and imaging, to member law enforcement agencies in Lake County and across the region, which includes more than 1.6 million citizens. 

“Our laboratory urges you to revive the program,” Lab Director Peter St. Andre said. “This technology can help local departments solve gun crimes and reduce repeat shootings and should be more widely available to police departments throughout Lake County and across the state.” 

In 2025, the City of Peoria and the Peoria County Sheriff’s Office received more than $300,000 in state grants through the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board to purchase NIBIN equipment. The grant program enabled Peoria County to become the first county in Illinois to operate NIBIN equipment machines thanks to this grant program. 

However, Peoria Assistant Police Chief Erin Barisch said the City of Peoria “urgently needs funding to purchase new equipment and supplies, and to upgrade existing software. We strongly support your legislation to provide $4 million in funding this fiscal year.”