Police departments throughout Illinois can enlist federal agencies to help them trace the guns they seize, including a program called eTrace, which allows gun-tracing requests to be sent quickly over the Internet to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin and Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart issued an alert that also notes the ATF is offering a new feature called “Collective Data Sharing,” which allows local agencies to share trace results with other local agencies to coordinate trafficking investigations more effectively
Durbin also says he's introducing a training initiative in the Senate, which he says will help police departments pursue gun tracing in criminal investigations.
