BATAVIA, Ohio — The Clermont County Sheriff’s Office has partnered with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to bring expanded crime-analysis and ballistics capabilities to the office’s S.A.F.E. Unit, Sheriff Christopher Stratton announced in a social media post.
Photos posted by the sheriff’s office show ATF’s Crime Gun Intelligence Center Mobile Command vehicle, marked with NIBIN branding, parked outside the sheriff’s office alongside Stratton and ATF representatives. NIBIN, the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, is ATF’s national system for comparing shell casings and other ballistic evidence to link firearms to crimes across jurisdictions.
The S.A.F.E. Unit — short for Surveillance, Analysis and Forensic Evidence — was established within the sheriff’s office’s crime lab in November 2025. Its mission has centered on digital evidence collection, analysis, intelligence and information sharing, work that has included cellphone and digital forensics, the sheriff’s office has said. The partnership with ATF extends the unit’s reach into ballistics and broader crime-analysis statistics for the first time.
ATF created NIBIN in 1997 as the nation’s only network for capturing and comparing ballistic evidence, a tool the agency uses through its Crime Gun Intelligence Centers in partnership with local and state law enforcement. Comparisons that once took months to process can now be completed in hours to days, according to ATF. Clermont County falls under ATF’s Columbus Field Division, which covers all of Ohio.
Stratton joined the sheriff’s office as a deputy in 1993 and rose through the ranks — sergeant in 2009, captain overseeing investigative and narcotics units in 2014, and chief deputy in 2017 — before becoming sheriff. He holds a bachelor’s degree in social sciences and criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati, according to the sheriff’s office.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office.