ShotSpotter Assists FBI, Franklin County Sheriff in Apprehending Ohio Sniper Suspect

Columbus, OH - March 22, 2004 – ShotSpotter, Inc., the country’s leading developer of gunshot location systems and technology, announced today that its products were used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department in their investigation of accused Ohio highway sniper Charles McCoy Jr. Several ShotSpotter Gunshot Location Systems were deployed in the area of interest during the months-long operation that was headed jointly by the FBI and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department.

ShotSpotter was contact by the FBI in late 2003 and deployed the first of its ShotSpotter GLS Systems within days. “The ShotSpotter Gunshot Location System does exactly what it promises to do,” said Sergeant Ross Staggs, Detective Bureau, Franklin County Sheriff’s Department. “Knowing the precise location and timing of a shooting within seconds is crucial, and knowing whether the shooter was moving, which the ShotSpotter system also tells us, is even more important.”

“We are honored to have been able to assist in this investigation,” said Major General (Ret.) Steve Siegfried, former head of Homeland Security for South Carolina and Vice Chairman of ShotSpotter. “Gunfire remains the single leading cause of homicide death in this country, and it is ShotSpotter’s mission to help control it.”

The ShotSpotter system uses the principle of acoustic triangulation to provide accurate locations for gunshot events in urban environments. ShotSpotter systems can detect gunfire over two miles away. The system is hardened to account for and filter out local anomalies and echoes often prevalent in noisy cities, and can even tell the difference between a gunshot and a car backfiring or a firecracker going off.

Sniper suspect Charles A. McCoy, Jr. was arrested the morning of March 18 by FBI and local law enforcement personnel in Las Vegas, NV, where he had been under surveillance. Earlier in the week, the Sheriff’s office released his photograph and a description of his vehicle, naming him a suspect in a string of highway shootings in and around the Columbus, OH area.

About ShotSpotter, Inc., (www.shotspotter.com)
ShotSpotter, Inc., the leading developer of gunshot location systems and technology, is based in Santa Clara, CA. ShotSpotter’s flagship product, which detects gunfire across large urban areas using a small number of inexpensive and easy-to-deploy sensors, currently protects the citizens of cities nationwide, from Los Angeles, CA to Washington, DC. Its products recently assisted the FBI and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office in identifying and capturing the Columbus, OH highway sniper suspect. In 2000, ShotSpotter was honored for its technology vision and leadership when got won the Computerworld Smithsonian Laureate Award, having been nominated by William H. Gates, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corporation, and the Smithsonian added its technology to the museum’s permanent collection. With technology covered by numerous patents, the company also offers products to the law enforcement, homeland security and military markets. ShotSpotter technology has consistently produced arrests and weapons confiscations nationwide and has helped reduce gunfire and crime rates in cities that deploy it.

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