Uniting for Impact: Making a Difference

Once upon a time, Roger Staubach upon winning the Heisman Trophy in 1963 was said to have smashed his trophy shattering it into small pieces all over the ground. As his family and teammates looked on in shock and disbelief, he collected each piece and proceeded to hand them out to those who were instrumental in his achievement and success. This was no small endeavor, as Staubach believed that there were many he needed to thank and share a piece of his trophy with.

While this story seems fantastic – and I cannot find any record of it - it is a stark reminder that achieving success in any endeavor requires teammates, partners, and so many who are all too often operating behind the scenes lending to one’s success or implementing a new program.

So, what can we learn from “Rodger the Dodger” as it relates to advancing combating gun crime?

The 4 Major Food Groups

Within the realm of nutritional science, the reference to food groups has become the cornerstone for aiding health professionals in devising diets tailored to individual requirements. The aim is to strike a balance between the intake of essential nutrients, to ensure a harmonious combination of vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients.

The reference to food groups is also a useful analogy for explaining the different stakeholders needed to describe the four key operational components of crime gun intelligence (CGI): investigative, forensic, analytic, and prosecutorial. While no one size fits all for advancing CGI, it is clear that these four components must be combined in a balanced and harmonious manner to prevent, solve, and prosecute gun-related crime, just as the nutritional food groups must be for good health.

This past October, Bob Troyer, the former United States Attorney for Colorado, provided an illustrative example of the power of “the crime gun intelligence food groups” at a breakout session of the International Association of the Chiefs of Police annual conference in San Diego.

It Takes a Team of Teams to Catch Shooters

On August 20, 2018, in Cherry Hills Village, Colorado, an extremely affluent suburb of Denver, the dreadful occurred during a home invasion.

Five suspects, two armed with handguns, just before 11:00 pm burst their way into a home where a family of four were getting ready for bed. Officer Cory Sack was the first to respond to the 911 hang-up received from the residence, and immediately engaged the invaders in the front foyer as gunfire erupted.

Source: CBS News

Officer Sack was struck twice and fell to the ground taking one round to his femur narrowly missing his femoral artery, but not before shooting one of the offenders. When the gun smoke had cleared, and the backup officers had arrived all suspects had fled the scene.

Law enforcement from all over immediately descended on scene. They were able to quickly transport Officer Sack to the ER to save his life, while at the same time begin the arduous job of pulling out all the stops to find and arrest his assailants. In the end, fifteen law enforcement agencies, RAVEN (the Regional Anti Violence Enforcement Network), the Denver Police Lab, the Colorado United States Attorney’s Office and two different District Attorney’s Offices would come together to bring the suspects to justice.

A juvenile suspect who left DNA behind at the scene after the tip of his finger was blown off during the gun fight with Officer Sack was identified and arrested. All seemed promising till the suspect and his mother invoked Miranda. With no identified co-conspirators and no gun recovered what seemed auspicious quickly evaporated.

Nevertheless, with 9mm shell casings found at the scene, no one should ever discount the power of NIBIN and doggedness of forensic technicians and investigators.

Nineteen days later, on the other side of Denver a truck driver arranges for a romantic interlude with a female. Upon meeting her he felt like he was being set up to be robbed.

Upon departing the truck stop, he observed an SUV following him on the highway. When he exited for another truck stop in Aurora, so did the SUV. Once in the truck stop, gunfire from the trailing SUV opened up on him. Fortunately, he was not struck.

The collected cartridge casings found at the truck stop were a NIBIN match to the 9mm fired cartridge casings from the shooting of Officer Sack.

While the truck driver never met the woman prior to their interlude, he did possess her phone number.

The world of CGI is the collection of hand offs and handshakes among the “food groups” exchanging information aimed at “what” happened ballistically and identifying “who dunnit.” It wasn’t long before the forensic technicians, investigators, and prosecutors would pool together their information, insight, and initiative to advance this important case and other related ones.

They would find that the handgun used by Angelo Alston to shoot Officer Sack was traded with other teens before a different assailant used the weapon to shoot at the truck driver in Aurora.

Eight confessions later, all the co-conspirators were implicated leading Angelo Alston to plead guilty to the attempted murder of Officer Sack. His data driven confession – a combination of forensic and investigative information - resulted in his 44-year prison sentence.

Taking it from the Top

“If we work together, we can make a difference,” Steven Dettelback, ATF Director.

On November 16, 2023, Director Dettelback was the guest speaker at the 2023 ASTORS Homeland Security Awards Ceremony in New York City. Much of his remarks were aimed at how the ATF stands shoulder-to-shoulder on the issue of gun violence, which he regrettably identified as the leading cause of death for children in America.

“The scope and scale of gun violence is unacceptable…addressing violence and homeland security problems cannot be done alone,” said the Director.

His call to arms for partnership and collaboration underscores that it is not enough for those within the key law enforcement components charged with investigating, assessing, and prosecuting gun crime to work hard at their vocations. Rather, they must also work in partnership across components, thinking and acting together to ensure that the common goal of justice for victims, resolution for their families, and peace for affected communities is reached.

Partnership and collaboration, while not always intuitive in the law enforcement community, once achieved can embody the much-needed harmonious violent crime-fighting capabilities necessary for mitigating the challenges confronted along the way while blazing pathways essential for accomplishing shared objectives.

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The quintessential cornerstone for combating gun-related violence is the pooling of knowledge, skills, and capabilities of the diverse stakeholders operating in this space.

The Staubach parable reminds us that within the realm of achievement, the true essence of accomplishment relies on the collective contributions of many regardless of who is fortunate enough to be awarded the trophy in the end.

Bob Troyer’s lesson teaches us that the congruent combination of key talents and capabilities offers the best opportunity for the successful accomplishment of the CGI mission. A feat to be celebrated jointly by all those involved and the public they serve.