How to Save a Life
A high-tech shot-detecting system locates gunfire but not human voices
New Haven Advocate
By Daniel D'Ambrosio
January 06, 2010
It didn't take long for ShotSpotter to pay off for New Haven police. The high-tech gunshot-detection system was developed in the early 1990s. It relies on a network of acoustic sensors the size and shape of coffee cans that "hear" shots and then notify police of their locations in seconds.
Officer Joe Avery, police spokesman, says that just days after installing 25 sensors in the Newhallville and Dixwell neighborhoods in September, ShotSpotter indicated gunfire at a Popeye's Chicken.
Police responded quickly — about five minutes faster than usual, says Avery — where they found shell casings but no victim. A 24-year-old man, shot in the stomach, had already been rushed to the hospital (he survived). No one in the neighborhood called the shooting in to 911.
"The whole point is ... if he was wounded to the point he couldn't leave or couldn't go in the car, he could have died," Avery says.
About a month later, cops caught 32-year-old Jennifer Burridge holding a .40-caliber Smith and Wesson. She was high on a hallucinogenic drug, firing at random.
Neither Hartford nor Bridgeport police has the system. Bridgeport Police Chief Joseph L. Gaudett says ShotSpotter is "on the wish list" for his department, but the city can't afford it right now. Neither can Hartford, according to police spokeswoman Nancy Mulroy. "We've been approached by vendors, but money is tight," she says.
Hartford police report 164 shooting "incidents" through Dec. 5 while New Haven police report 144 nonfatal shootings in the same time period. Bridgeport police report 71 shootings so far in 2009, which includes fatal and nonfatal shootings. A recent gun buy-back program in Hartford, in which participants received gift certificates for $25, $50 or $75 depending on the weapon, yielded 78 firearms and "numerous" rounds of ammunition.
New Haven police secured a $350,000 federal grant to install ShotSpotter covering about 1.5 square miles. Avery says before installing the system, New Haven cops visited colleagues in Springfield, Mass., where ShotSpotter had been in place since 2007 to pick their brains.
"We've had tremendous success with [ShotSpotter]," says Sgt. John Delaney, executive aide to Springfield's police commissioner.
There was the recent home invasion, for example, in which two men tied up a couple with electrical cord before ransacking the house. The duo lingered before finally leaving. That's when things got crazy.
"The guy [who had been tied up] broke loose and charged out of the house after them, taking the law into his own hands," Delaney says. "During the chase, one of the perpetrators took out a handgun and shot it in the direction of the guy chasing them."
ShotSpotter picked up on the gunshot and police surrounded the area within five minutes, according to Delaney. The suspects were charged with kidnapping, home invasion, assault and intent to murder.
Springfield spent about $1 million on ShotSpotter, which covers roughly three square miles of the city's roughest neighborhoods. It takes about $90,000 annually to maintain the system. Many police cruisers are equipped with on-board computers that make the system even more efficient.
"If you get one gun off the street, that's worth a million dollars right there," Delaney says. "Since January [2009], we've recovered 20 guns solely because of ShotSpotter."
Delaney says dispatchers can hear the shots in real time, and can direct officers to the front or back of a house. The manufacturer (also called ShotSpotter) is aware that such accuracy has some concerned about Big Brother listening in on their conversations. The company is careful to highlight that the system doesn't detect voices. It's activated by gunshots only.
"Typical human speech is unintelligible at distances greater than 20 feet away from our acoustic sensors," explains the ShotSpotter Web site.
The Connecticut chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union says for now, ShotSpotter is not something they're concerned about.
How ShotSpotter Works
• The ShotSpotter system provides precise latitude and longitude of shots fired, as well as street addresses.
• Sensor locations are chosen to avoid overhearing speech, like rooftops, telephone poles and other
restricted-access locations.
• Forty-six cities and counties in the United States use ShotSpotter, including Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles.
• The U.S. military uses it to track and locate enemy forces in real time.
• In 1997, the National Institute of Justice found ShotSpotter "accurately detected 80 percent of test fire incidents inside the one square-mile coverage area to within 40 feet."
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ShotSpotter contact |
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Erin Lopez |
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