Due to technology, like the ShotSpotter Pilot Program that detects and locates gunfire to help catch criminals, the Houston Police Department has been led to several shootings in the past month.
On Monday, police said they were called to a location in southeast Houston after being alerted by ShotSpotter technology.
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Days prior to Monday’s shooting, a ShotSpotter alert led officers to a shooting that left a 14-year-old boy injured Saturday morning in northwest Houston, HPD said.
The technology is helping to build a map of where incidents are happening, which will, in turn, lead to better law enforcement coverage and safer neighborhoods.
The ACLU noted that the technology is often deployed in “communities of color.”
How does ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology work?
ShotSpotter, now known as SoundThinking, sets up an array of acoustic sensors in a coverage area on top of buildings or light poles. These sensors listen for loud, impulsive sounds that may be gunfire. Once captured, SoundThinking’s computers dismiss sounds that are clearly not gunfire, such as fireworks or helicopters.
The remaining sounds are sent to specially-trained ShotSpotter reviewers located in our ShotSpotter Incident Review Centers (“IRCs”), who then playback the recorded sounds and visually analyze the audio waveforms to see if they match the typical pattern of gunfire, assess the grouping of sensors that participated, and either publish the incident to police as gunfire or dismiss it as non-gunfire. This entire process typically occurs within 60 seconds from the time of the gunfire to the time the alert is sent to law enforcement.
Here is a video that also explains the technology:
Can you show us what the equipment looks like?
No, we cannot provide a photo, but the ShotSpotter media kit has videos and diagrams available. You can find the media kit here: https://www.shotspotter.com/media-kit/.
Can you provide any metrics in terms of accuracy and success?
More than 80% of gunfire incidents are not reported to police, per the Brookings Institution. ShotSpotter fills that data gap by alerting police of virtually all gunfire within 60 seconds. This enables a fast, precise police response to help save the lives of gunshot wound victims and capture critical evidence at the scene.
ShotSpotter is trusted by more than 120 cities and police departments across the country have reported success with ShotSpotter, which can be seen on our Results Page and in our published Success Stories.
The ShotSpotter system is highly accurate as it operates at a 97% aggregate accuracy rate for real-time detections across all customers. Derived directly from police department reports submitted to ShotSpotter, this accuracy rate was independently verified by Edgeworth Analytics, a data science firm. You can find the Edgeworth report here: https://edgeworthanalytics.com/independent-audit-of-the-shotspotter-accuracy/