An Act concerning the reporting of certain firearms information and supplementing and amending P.L.1966, c.37.

Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. Section 3 of P.L.1966, c.37 (C.52:17B-5.3) is amended to read as follows:

3. a. All local and county police authorities shall submit a quarterly report to the Attorney General, on forms prescribed by the Attorney General, which report shall contain the number and nature of offenses committed within their respective jurisdictions, the disposition of such matters, information relating to criminal street gang activities within their respective jurisdictions, information relating to any offense directed against a person or group, or their property, by reason of their race, color, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, or ethnicity and such other information as the Attorney General may require, respecting information relating to the cause and prevention of crime, recidivism, the rehabilitation of criminals and the proper administration of criminal justice.

b. A law enforcement officer who responds to an offense involving criminal street gang activity shall complete a gang related incident offense report on a form prescribed by the Superintendent of State Police. All information contained in the gang related incident offense report shall be forwarded to the Superintendent of State Police for inclusion in the Uniform Crime Report.

c. A law enforcement officer who seizes or recovers a firearm that was unlawfully possessed, used for an unlawful purpose, recovered from a crime scene or is reasonably believed to have been used in or associated with the commission of a crime, or is otherwise acquired as an abandoned or discarded firearm shall, within 24 hours of the entering of the required information relating to that firearm into the New Jersey Trace System and such other State and federal database systems as prescribed by the superintendent, complete a seized or recovered firearms incident report on a form prescribed by the superintendent. The incident report shall be filed with the State Police in a manner and time prescribed by the superintendent.

(cf: P.L.2010, c.110, s.3)

2. (New section) The State Police shall collect and analyze the information submitted on the seized or recovered firearms incident reports and filed pursuant to subsection c. of section 3 of P.L.1966, c.37 (C.52:17B-5.3) and utilizing the information made available by the National Crime Information Center, the Criminal Justice Information System, and the National Integrated Ballistics Identification Network on each of those seized or recovered firearms compile a statistical data index showing:

a. The aggregate number of firearms illegally trafficked into New Jersey;

b. The state of origin of the seized or recovered firearms;

c. The identity and city location of the firearm's source vendor;

d. The number of those firearms reported stolen prior to their being seized or recovered;

e. The percentage of those firearms used in or associated with the commission of a crime prior to their being seized or recovered;

f. When appropriate, the number of different perpetrators and crimes associated with a particular firearm for both jurisdictions outside the State of New Jersey and New Jersey jurisdictions; and

g. Such other information that the Attorney General and superintendent deem appropriate.

The information and analysis collected and compiled pursuant to this section shall be incorporated and included in the annual uniform crime report the Attorney General renders to the Governor and Legislature pursuant to P.L.1966, c.37 (C.52:17B-5.1 et seq.).

3. This act shall take effect on the first day of the fourth month following enactment, but the Attorney General may take such anticipatory administrative action in advance thereof as shall be necessary for the implementation of this act.

STATEMENT

This bill would require that information relating to the crime of firearms trafficking be included in the annual crime report the Attorney General prepares and transmits to the Governor and Legislature.

Under the provisions of the bill, local law enforcement officers and agencies are required to report to the various federal and State database systems that are part of the Criminal Justice Information System information relating to their seizure or recovery of firearms (1) unlawfully possessed; (2) used for an unlawful purpose; (3) recovered at a crime scene; or (4) found as abandoned or discarded weapons.

These database systems, which include the National Crime Information Center's 2000 System, NJ Trace (part of the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives' e-Trace System) and the National Integrated Ballistics Identification Network, make nationwide firearms information readily available to law enforcement agencies. By integrating and analyzing the firearms' information available through these databases with the data submitted by local law enforcement agencies in New Jersey, the State Police can develop valuable profiles on the geographic and source venders, or providers, of the firearms being illegally brought into the State.

Among the topics the bill specifies are to be included in the Attorney General's annual Uniform Crime Report are: the aggregate number of firearms illegally trafficked into New Jersey; the state of origin of all firearms seized or recovered in New Jersey; the identity and city location of the firearm's source vendor; the number of those firearms reported stolen prior to their seizure or recovery; the percentage of those firearms used in or associated with the commission of a crime prior to seizure or recovery; when appropriate, the number of different perpetrators and crimes associated with a particular seized or recovered firearm; and any other information the Attorney General deems appropriate.