The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council on March 11 approved a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to formalize its relationship with the Louisville regional FBI task force and approved a request to continue federal funding of the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN) program at $700,000.

The council approved the items during the work session’s new-business vote after questions from council members about participating agencies and program details. The MOU is intended to clarify responsibilities for the regional task force on policy guidance, planning, training and public/media relations. Council members were told the agreement aims to increase intelligence-sharing and cooperation on violent crimes including bank robberies, human trafficking and homicide.

Council members asked which federal and local partners would participate; a police official responding at the meeting said the agreement is with the FBI and surrounding local law-enforcement agencies. When a council member asked why federal documents used the phrase “alien smuggling,” staff said that wording is a federal term and that cross-border immigration enforcement generally falls to the Department of Homeland Security.

Council members also questioned a separate new-business item seeking $700,000 to continue NIBIN operations. Officials said Lexington’s NIBIN capacity allows the city to collect spent bullet casings from local crime scenes and, in some cases, accept evidence from other agencies in the region. The casings are uploaded into a shared database to help investigators link shootings across scenes and potentially identify suspects faster.

No roll-call tallies were recorded in the work-session transcript; the council approved the items by voice vote. Staff told council members the NIBIN funds would support the continuation of the program and its equipment and that acting as a regional hub makes it easier to match evidence from multiple jurisdictions.

Council members and staff framed the two items as complementary: the MOU formalizes interagency cooperation and the NIBIN funding sustains a forensic capability that benefits multiple agencies in the region.

The council did not take additional substantive actions or set implementation dates during the work session. The MOU and NIBIN continuation were advanced as approved in new business; further implementation steps and any reporting requirements were not specified in the transcript.