“The most serious consequence is being convicted of a crime you didn’t commit using this as evidence.” “We have a constitutional right to confront all witnesses and evidence against us, but in this case the ShotSpotter system is the accuser, and there is no way to determine if it’s accurate, monitored, calibrated or if someone’s added something,” said Katie Higgins, a defense attorney who has successfully fought ShotSpotter evidence. The company has shielded internal data and records revealing the system’s inner workings, leaving defense attorneys no way of interrogating the technology to understand the specifics of how it works. The company’s privacy policy says sensor locations aren’t divulged to police departments, although community members can see them on their street lamps. Employees in a dark, restricted-access room study hundreds of thousands of gunfire alerts on multiple computer screens at the company’s headquarters about 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of San Francisco or a newer office in Washington.įorensic tools such as DNA and ballistics evidence used by prosecutors have had their methodologies examined in painstaking detail for decades, but ShotSpotter claims its software is proprietary, and won’t release its algorithm. ShotSpotter installs its acoustic sensors on buildings, telephone poles and street lights. “The evidence that we’ve produced suggests that the technology does not reduce firearm violence in the long-term, and the implementation of the technology does not lead to increased murder or weapons related arrests,” said lead author Mitch Doucette. It found that the technology didn’t reduce gun violence or increase community safety. One study published in April in the peer-reviewed Journal of Urban Health examined ShotSpotter in 68 large, metropolitan counties from 1999 to 2016, the largest review to date. Researchers who took a look at ShotSpotter’s impacts in communities where it is used came to a different conclusion. “ShotSpotter has turned into one of the most important cogs in our wheel of addressing gun violence,” said Toledo, Ohio Police Chief George Kral during a 2019 International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Chicago. ![]() Law enforcement officials say it helps get officers to crime scenes quicker and helps cash-strapped public safety agencies better deploy their resources. The system is usually placed at the request of local officials in neighborhoods deemed to be the highest risk for gun violence, which are often disproportionately Black and Latino communities. The technology, which has been installed in about 110 American cities, large and small, can cost up to $95,000 per square mile per year. Police chiefs call ShotSpotter a game-changer. ShotSpotter equipment overlooks the intersection of South Stony Island Avenue and East 63rd Street in Chicago on Tuesday, Aug.
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