ShotSpotter: What is it? Is it effective in reducing gun violence?
I asked Toledo Police.
TOLEDO, Ohio — ShotSpotter is a gunshot detection technology owned by San Francisco-based company SoundThinking. The company recently rebranded, after its stock tanked when newly-elected mayor Brandon Johnson vowed to end the City of Chicago’s contract with the company. So, locally, is this technology effective and, therefore, useful?
“It’s a device that picks up on sound through various locations that are set up throughout the area and what it does is it’ll pick up the sound and send it to their verification center, where a person will listen to it, and confirm whether or not — based off the noise — whether it is actual gunfire,” explained Toledo Police Department Public Information Officer Paul Davis.
Davis told me over the phone that TPD began utilizing this technology back in 2019.
While reducing crime and addressing gun violence are a part of TPD’s efforts, he wasn’t able to provide exact data to suggest if ShotSpotter is aiding in those efforts. However, the technology has been useful in gathering evidence, on top of directing officers to potentially active scenes.
One concern is the fact that the tech can mistake sounds of things that aren’t gunshots for… gunshots. So I asked Davis, “What is the effectiveness, so the ratio of actual gunshots to those sounds that are mistaken for gunshots?”
“Unfortunately, there’s no way for us to keep track of that because, sometimes, when we get the ShotSpotter alert, we get there and don’t find any evidence.”
And just how does it cost annually?
“ShotSpotter, the yearly cost is $840,000,” Davis said.
To which I asked, “And that comes out of TPD’s budget?”
“Yes… but there’s some grants involved in that, there’s some donations from different organizations that pay for some of that.”
So there you have it: data on just how effective this technology truly is is hard to come by, however, it has been of use in investigations.
