WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Law enforcement agencies across the U.S. may be turning to Wichita to help solve crimes. They will seek out the equipment and talent inside a building at Wichita State University.

On Monday, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) opened its National Crime Gun Intelligence Center of Excellence, 4610 E. 18th Street, at WSU. ATF already has a ballistic laboratory and forensic laboratory on campus.

“One of ATF’s greatest assets is our crime gun intelligence, and this center of excellence is going to bring that intelligence to new heights,” Steven Dettelbach, ATF director, said.

He defined crime gun intelligence as the ability to squeeze every last bit of evidence from the outside of the gun, the inside of the gun, and from what comes out of the gun.

“This center is going to be a national hub. It’s going to develop the investigative leads that clear homicides and catch bad guys all over this country,” Dettelbach said. “The future of fighting violent crime in this country is going to flow directly through Wichita.”

At the heart of the center is NIBIN, the National Integrated Ballistics Identification Network.

“That network captures millions of ballistic images from crime guns all over the nation, and it’s game-changing,” Dettelbach said. “Because what NIBIN does is it allows us to get leads to actual investigators, homicide detectives, gang units, sex crimes investigators all over the country to solve shootings.”

The ATF analysts will attempt to match the images from the cartridge casings from one crime scene with cartridge casings from other crime scenes around the U.S.

“It will allow us to connect the dots in a way that clears homicide cases from the books of local law enforcement,” Dettelbach said.

He said ATF has promised that when law enforcement agencies submit casings, ATF will get the report done in 48 hours or less.

“Something special is really happening in Wichita,” Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, said. “We have seen time and time again businesses and now governmental agencies who are choosing to locate their facilities, their people, and to grow their work in Wichita.”

Moran is the lead Republican on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science, which provides funding and oversight of the ATF.

“I’m loving the thought that wherever a crime is committed, that if it’s something serious and a criminal needs to be apprehended, the message will be, ‘We got to get this to Wichita so we can solve this crime,'” he said.

He said ATF’s decision to come to the WSU Innovation Campus speaks highly of the school and the community.

“When we talked about the Innovation Campus and growing the opportunities for people in Kansas to benefit from job creation on this campus, we were talking about aerospace and defense work,” Moran said.

But ATF and others that have chosen WSU could be changing that view.

“Maybe we’ll be the Law Enforcement Capital of the World,” Moran said. “We will always work to be the Air Capital of the World, but this gives us a whole new direction that was unanticipated, at least by me, when we started down this path.”

Wichita State President Richard Muma said WSU’s partnership with ATF aptly fits the school’s vision to be a premier urban public research university, one that is known for providing impactful applied learning experiences and driving prosperity for this community.

“(ATF) is not only an agency that’s here that creates new jobs and internship prospects to our community and our students, but it will bring state-of-the-art technology and will aid law enforcement in investigating and solving gun crimes throughout the country,” Muma said.

“This is a continuation of some really significant opportunities that are happening on this campus as a result of the workforce and the talent and education, the criminal justice program,” Moran said about WSU.