NCJ Number
77997
Date Published
1980
Length
19 pages
Annotation
The form used in a survey of police department weapons practices and related issues is presented.
Abstract
The form was used in a 1980 survey conducted by the Social and Demographic Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts. Major sections of the survey deal with the department routine weapons recordkeeping practices, departmental use of national weapons tracing systems, departmental procedures for storage and disposition of confiscated firearms, and departmental computer use. In the section on firearms regulation activities, activities sometimes performed by police departments in the regulation of firearms are listed; for each function listed, the survey inquires whether the regulation is required under law and whether the department or some other agency performs the function. Questions on recordkeeping practices deal with the kinds of information the department would usually keep on firearms used in committing crimes. The questions pose brief descriptions of typical situations in which firearms are involved, and the kind of firearms information that would be kept for each situation is requested. Both the National Crime Information Center and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms can be used to check on firearms used in crime. The survey asks about a department's use of and experience with these services. Questions on procedures for storage and disposition of confiscated firearms inquire about how firearms are handled when they are evidence in a case, illegally possessed, and simply found. The concluding section asks questions about different kinds of computer use in a department. Some final general questions inquire about whether the use of firearms in crimes is a serious problem in the department's jurisdiction, whether trafficking in illegal firearms is prevalent, and the nature of gun control issues debated in the department's jurisdiction.