TRAC Spotlight is a supplemental service for obtaining additional information about the topic of one of our special reports, in this case the enforcement activities of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (which was renamed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives when it was moved to the Department of Justice on January 24, 2003).

If you are already a TRACFED subscriber, just use the menu at left. If not, read on...

With Spotlight, there are now three distinct mechanisms for obtaining information that TRAC has obtained from the Justice Department and other agencies under the Freedom of Information Act about a subject of unique importance.

1. Available on TRAC's free public site is a report and accompanying tables examining the ATF's enforcement activities.

   Available on TRAC Spotlight are additional data and maps and graphs on such related subjects as how the ATF's enforcement effort in a given district compared with what was done at the national level. It also provides a variety of additional indices, as well as greater detail on a program-by-program basis. For a $10 online charge you get 20 TRAC Spotlight queries over a 20-day period. Click here to get TRAC Spotlight on the ATF.

   Available on TRACFED, TRAC's full-service subscription site, are advanced tools that allow you to drill down to individual records or examine how the ATF has processed various sub-categories of cases. (Access to all TRAC Spotlight tools are also automatically included.) TRACFED, however, is not limited to the ATF. It provides very extensive information about all kinds of criminal and civil enforcement activities (white collar crime, official corruption, drugs, etc.), IRS administrative actions, and federal employees, including case-by-case information about individual federal judges and prosecutors. Click here to subscribe to TRACFED.

The TRAC Spotlight tool provides six different viewing options. To begin, select a question view from the left-hand menu bar. After making the necessary selections, click submit request and the desired information will be delivered to your browser.