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Community
Choice
Still Skeptical?
Does my city need ShotSpotter?
Police nationwide think the answer is a resounding “yes.” ShotSpotter has helped reduce gunfire rates by 50-80% in areas where it has been deployed for more than a year, and it continues to keep cities safe in every single location in which it has been installed. (ShotSpotter has the only 100% acceptance-and-operational record in the industry.) Other gunshot detection systems promise free trials, but rarely if ever do these trials turn into fully operational systems.
Even if you are lucky enough to live in a location in which gunfire is not a daily problem, ShotSpotter can help provide an extra safety net to your community. Take for example the case of Jane Doe, who was shot in the neck in an Arizona city in 2004. Without ShotSpotter, Ms. Doe would have died, because nobody else heard the gunshot and nobody called for police or paramedics. Thanks to ShotSpotter, help arrived and Ms. Doe has completely recovered.
Is gunfire really a problem these days?
Absolutely. Despite remarkable progress in law enforcement and decreasing crime rates throughout the ’90s, in 2002 (the most recent year for which figures are available), the FBI reported some 18,000 homicides nationwide, of which 12,000 involved the use of a gun. That’s 33 homicides involving guns per day, or a little more than one every forty-four minutes. And these figures do not include attempted homicides, of which there are, by some estimates, perhaps five to six times as many.
Homicide-related gunfire is not the only reason for the illegal discharge of weapons. Around the country, otherwise law-abiding citizens fire guns into the air in celebration around certain holidays. Unfortunately, following the old dictum that “what goes up must come down,” those citizens often don’t realize that the bullets they fire up can, and have, come down only to kill people miles away. Through the extensive use of ShotSpotter systems, targeted publicity and careful follow-up after periods of high gunfire activities, police have been successful in virtually eliminating “celebratory gunfire” in cities which have had ShotSpotter the longest.
What is the cost of gunfire?
There are very real costs—both financial and in terms of police officers’ health and safety—of gunfire, even if they are not immediately obvious. In fact, in 2003, the Chicago Sun Times estimated the cost of every gunshot victim to society at approximately $170,000, including medical costs, investigation, prosecution, and legal costs. (This cost did not include the cost of criminal incarceration.) And these figures do not account for the costs to local businesses of the climate of fear which develops within communities plagued by gun violence. By helping to eliminate gunfire, and to put criminals in jail who will not cease firing guns despite the installation of ShotSpotter systems, we help mitigate these and many other related costs, thereby keeping more funds and resources available to citizens for other municipal and civic purposes.
What about my privacy?
ShotSpotter is committed to preserving privacy rights. ShotSpotter systems do not trigger on human speech or other non-threatening sounds. Furthermore, our sensors render human speech unintelligible at distances greater than 20 feet away from our sensors, and therefore even if someone were to be speaking coincidentally at the same time as a gunshot is detected (hence triggering the system), the system would likely only record the sound of the voice, while the words themselves would remain garbled. What about people standing less than 20 feet away from the sensor? Remember that ShotSpotter sensors are deployed on rooftops, telephone poles or in other restricted-access locations. Locations are specifically chosen to avoid the possibility of people or conversations being overheard.
Isn’t this “Big Brother”?
With all due respect to Mr. Orwell, gunshot location systems are not intended or used to spy on our citizens. (See the answer immediately preceding for details on how ShotSpotter does not trigger on noises which do not sound like gunfire.) In cities in which ShotSpotter is deployed, it is illegal to discharge a firearm except on a certified shooting range or under other controlled circumstances. Thus, anyone who does fire a gun has broken the law, and it is our position—with which district attorneys, police and civil rights groups agree—that firing a weapon illegally within city limits creates a significant threat to public safety and therefore warrants the detection of the event, investigation of its perpetrators, and possible indictment of suspects.
Why is ShotSpotter the market leader?
For two simple reasons: First, no other company requires fewer sensors per square mile than ShotSpotter. Our patents prohibit anyone from deploying systems with fewer than 25 sensors per square mile, while our experience proves that sensor densities in the 10-20 per square mile are optimal. Second, no other company can offer the real-world experience and reputation ShotSpotter has. Every single one of ShotSpotter’s customers has kept their system installed, several have expanded after initial installation, and every single one of our accounts is a reference for our experience and dedication.
Other systems claim they only need one sensor to detect gunfire — how many do you require?
Don’t be fooled by this misleading statement! While other systems may be able to locate nearby gunfire with only one sensor, those systems cannot locate gunfire at the one and a half to two mile distances ShotSpotter can. Systems which detect gunfire based on its closeness to a given sensor are called proximity detection systems. They have narrow applicability—when there is advance knowledge of shooter’s location and intended firing direction. Expect proximity detection systems to work within a very limited area—a circle with a two or three hundred square foot radius. Assuming a generous 250-foot detection radius, a proximity detection system would require between 100-450 sensors to provide the same coverage as a ShotSpotter system would with ten to fifteen sensors.
Moreover, with proximity detection systems, operators know only that an event took place “nearby” and sometimes “in that direction.” By contrast, ShotSpotter systems provide precise latitude and longitude (as well as street address) for every single detected incident.
How long does it take to deploy a ShotSpotter system?
Using the ShotSpotter Rapid Deployment Wireless Gunshot Location System, customers can deploy a tactical use or temporary ShotSpotter system within a few hours. For longer-term deployments, wireless systems take approximately four to five hours to install, per sensor, while wired systems require a few weeks’ lead-time but require less than two hours per sensors to install.
Is the ShotSpotter system difficult to use?
ShotSpotter has police dispatch professionals, former sworn law enforcement professionals on staff who provide training. System training is included in the cost of every system, and regular “refresher” training is offered.
Typically, no more than two hours’ training is required for dispatchers and other personnel to learn to use the system for basic incident detection, dispatch and recording functions. For more detailed forensic analysis and reporting, investigators and detectives generally require an additional four to six hours training, depending on their existing forensic and scientific background.
Couldn’t this money be better spent hiring more police?
There is absolutely no substitute for good police work. ShotSpotter has never marketed its product as a replacement for the hard work of law enforcement professionals, and they never will. ShotSpotter systems are generally funded through separate funding streams than the operational budgets which pay police salaries, and we do not attempt to compete for operational funds when officers’ jobs are at stake.
What ShotSpotter can do is help police response to gunfire become more efficient. By eliminating false alarm calls, police respond to fewer events which waste their time, and save their energies for real emergencies. Moreover, because ShotSpotter provides immediate notification of events, police are more readily able to respond quickly enough to save lives and take criminals off the street, thereby reducing the criminal population of would-be shooters, as well as police workload.
What about officer safety?
ShotSpotter is proven to increase officer safety. With the increasing incidence of the use of assault weapons (AK-47s and others), ShotSpotter’s automatic analysis of weapon events helps officers plan for the sorts of circumstances into which they will be entering when they respond to a call. By providing live audio playback of events to dispatchers or to investigators in the field, ShotSpotter allows officers to know what they are responding to before they arrive. And since being prepared is the best defense against injury to suspects or responding officers, ShotSpotter helps keep both officers and the suspects they are pursuing safer.
Is ShotSpotter a counter-sniper system?
ShotSpotter was deployed by the FBI over 90 linear miles of Ohio interstate highways during the 2003-2004 Ohio Sniper incident, in the largest deployment of gunfire location systems in the world. During that period, we provided key forensic evidence to the investigative team and were instrumental in collecting the evidence which eventually lead to his arrest. ShotSpotter is thus the perfect tool to combat domestic sniper terrorism.
Note: in the military world, counter-sniper systems have different meanings than they do in law enforcement. See our military/defense products for more information.
What about court cases? Does the evidence hold up?
Because the evidence can be so compelling, ShotSpotter data is regularly used by police to elicit confessions from suspects in homicide and other gunfire-related investigations. Thus, ShotSpotter evidence rarely makes it into contested trials, because suspects have long before confessed in light of the evidence. However, should it be necessary, ShotSpotter can provide expert witness testimony upon request for customers. ShotSpotter has a standing commitment to law enforcement and prosecutors to support their efforts in any way they can.
What about silencers?
While high-quality silencers (also known as "muzzle blast suppressors") do have the ability to defeat ShotSpotter, the reality is, they are very rare and are illegal nationwide. Thus, while owning a licensed gun is not illegal, and carrying it usually is not (depending on jurisdiction), having in one’s possession a silencer is virtually guaranteed to lead to criminal prosecution. Moreover, silencers are both exceedingly difficult to find and have a negative impact on the accuracy and range of gunfire. Perhaps this is why less than 1% of all crimes in which guns are fired involve silencers, according to the FBI.
How do you know it’s accurate?
ShotSpotter was tested and proven to be accurate by the National Institute of Justice back in 1998. That testing showed overall accuracy of 40 feet over a one square mile coverage area. In the years since 1998, ShotSpotter has produced numerous product improvements, increasing system accuracy and decreasing false alarm rates.
But the best test of all is to ask ShotSpotter customers. ShotSpotter has collected some of what they have to say here, but you are also encouraged to ask department representatives in cities which have deployed ShotSpotter. Ask them, for example, what has happened to their “brass recovery rate” (the percentage of times officers responding to a shots-fired call actually recover shell casings). That number will have gone up, both because of a reduction in false alarms and because ShotSpotter provides precise locations of events for which locations were previously only known by the most approximate of measures. ShotSpotter has helped catch criminals nationwide, and police who have used it will tell you that once they have it, they never want to loose it, which is why ShotSpotter has never had to remove or decommission a system. |
