HIGH POINT, N.C. (WGHP) — High Point police are taking a proactive approach to getting guns and criminals off the street.

A system called National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN) is making their job a bit easier. On Wednesday night, police talked about how this technology is helping close cases during a public safety meeting.

Many of the crimes committed in cities throughout the Piedmont Triad are tied to the same guns.

If you look at this NIBIN chart, this shows one of the guns High Point officers have recovered. Each line branching off of it represents the gun being fired at a scene. That’s 11 separate crimes this gun was involved in.

“We’ll not tolerate it inside our city and I’m sure we’re not going to be able to get every crime,” said Chief Travis Stroud. “I understand that. But we have to get lucky once they have to get lucky every time.”

Chief Stroud is making one thing clear to criminals.

“Don’t do it in High Point,” he said.

If you do, Stroud said his officers will find you. Now, they don’t have to do it alone. His department is getting help from NIBIN. It tracks firearms and spent shell casings.

In 2022, High Point officers seized a record 450 guns. Each one is entered into the NIBIN system and connects the weapon to crimes committed across the country.

Officers have used the network to link multiple juveniles to a crime spree in High Point in the fall of 2022 involving several stolen vehicles and guns and four shootings.

“All together it was 18 guns used involving these guys,” said an ATF task force officer. “That’s a lot of guns.”

More than 40 juvenile petitions have been made involving this spree. Chief Stroud said some of the teens involved in these crimes have known gang affiliations.

“It’s tough because you watch these things evolve through time and you see that they are juveniles getting into the wrong crowds, running in the wrong circles, committing these crimes,” said Stroud. “Once you get into this sort of lifestyle it can be very hard to get out of if you get out of it at all.”

Every day officers are using this network and working with other law enforcement agencies to find more leads to help them solve more cases.

“It’s a regional thing,” said Stroud. “It’s probably even much bigger than regional I would guess. We probably don’t even know everything. We’ve got a 15-day span where this is what we knew what happened. There’s things we haven’t uncovered.”

Stroud said many of the stolen guns are being taken out of unlocked cars. Many cars are being stolen while left unlocked and running. The chief said most of the time, the cars are stolen with the intention of committing a bigger crime.