Federal lab at WSU expected to help police solve gun crimes across U.S. faster
Wichita has long been known as the “Air Capital of the World,” but U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran said Monday he looks forward to the city soon earning another nickname: “the law enforcement capital of the world.”
He said that as a federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Forensics Crime Gun Intelligence Laboratory opened on Wichita State University’s Innovation Campus. Federal, state and local leaders celebrated the new facility, which is designed to help solve violent gun-related crimes across the country while training the next generation of forensic and criminal justice professionals.
“This is not a forced partnership,” said ATF Director Robert Cekada. “You have people that are very, very much leaning forward … to be part of the solution. They’re not just looking at ATF to provide answers; they’re looking at ways to find new technology and new ideas to help us, help the communities that we serve across the country together.”
University and federal officials said the partnership also speaks to the collaboration between higher education, government and industry. Wichita State President Rick Muma said the partnership is about creating “a seamless pipeline of talent” while helping ATF and its partners solve complex public safety challenges.
“Partnerships with federal agencies like the ATF strengthen public safety, expand research capability and help fuel and diversify our state and regional economy,” Muma said. “Just as important, this partnership creates meaningful applied learning opportunities for our students and helps ATF with their talent needs.”
The lab will house a hub for forensic analysis and crime gun intelligence capable of tracing firearms, processing ballistic evidence and helping investigators connect guns used in crimes across the country. Officials said the work done in Wichita will support local police departments as well as law enforcement nationwide, giving agencies access to forensic resources that are often difficult to get or maintain on their own.
“The whole point of this facility is to take evidence recovered from crime scenes across the country, process it as quickly as possible, and get that information out to our state and local partners to reduce violent crime,” Cekada said. “There’s no politics involved here other than making America safer.”
Cekada said the partnership arrives at a time when agencies across the country are struggling to recruit and retain trained forensic scientists and investigators. He said the facility’s blended offering of education and access to new investigative technologies will help law enforcement agencies everywhere identify violent criminals faster and remove “them from the streets where they can’t hurt people in our communities”.
“Far too often what we end up doing is recruiting from one police department or a state agency, and causing a shortage on their behalf. That’s not good for anyone,” Cekada said. “So, the partnership here with Wichita State fills a critical gap.”
With the facility’s opening also comes new job opportunities. The lab now has 36 open positions, Cekada said, adding he hopes that within three years about 100 Kansans will work there alongside WSU students. Those additional employees would also increase the lab’s testing capacity, boosting the number of shell casings collected at crime scenes, local and national, processed each year from about 4,000 to 12,000.
For Moran, the opening was also indicative of Kansas’ evolving identity.
“Closer to home means that we can get the evidence here more quickly, and it means that the crimes can be solved more quickly,” Moran said. “It will bring federal law enforcement agencies from all arenas to Kansas, and we’ll have a closer working relationship not only with ATF but with the FBI, the U.S. Marshals, and DEA. So a win-win-win.”
That, Moran said, can help rebrand Wichita as a resource for Kansas and for agencies nationwide.
“It won’t be very long before a law enforcement official across the country will take a fingerprint, a ballistic representation, and say, ‘Send it to Kansas — send it to Wichita — because that’s where they have the capabilities to help us solve this crime,’” he said.
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Not all of the lab’s capabilities are available yet. The facility is launching in phases, with expanded services expected as staffing and resources grow. Officials expect it to be fully operational within the next few years. More information can be found on the ATF’s website.
This story was originally published May 18, 2026 at 5:24 PM.
