Winston-Salem Police Department launches ShotSpotter technology
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In an effort to reduce gun violence in Winston-Salem, the police department is expanding its Real Time Crime Center, adding new technology to its range of strategies to do so.Using grant funding, the Winston-Salem Police Department launched ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection system, in August. The program identifies possible gunshots using sensors placed in the city. The alert is sent for a review back to ShotSpotter’s review center. If the alert is viable, the department said, the alert goes back to dispatchers within 60 seconds.“It helps us keep the community safer by alerting us to gunfire incidents that occur in the community,” said Lt. Amy Gauldin, of the criminal investigations unit. “ShotSpotter has been wonderful to work with and the technology has really made a difference for our officers.”A federal grant provided the roughly $700,000 in funding to purchase and implement the technology.Gauldin said the alerts allow officers to quickly identify where gunshots may be occurring in the city, allowing officers to respond faster, improving the opportunity to give aid to anyone who may be hurt and tentatively begin collecting evidence.The agency brought the technology online Aug. 19, Gauldin said. Since then, she said, 63 alerts have gone off with 225 rounds detected. She said sensors are located within 3 square miles and that the censor locations were determined based on data indicating areas of the city where gunfire has a history of occurring. ShotSpotter has received criticism over the years. “There are numerous surveillance technologies that are deployed in communities throughout North Carolina, also across the country, that do have serious concerns for people’s privacy and civil liberties and there are a number of consequences related to that,” said Dustin Chicurel-Bayard, communications director for the ACLU of North Carolina.Dustin Chicurel-Bayard said there is general concern about where the technology is being used. “We’ve seen, from other cities, that ShotSpotter itself is deployed overwhelmingly in communities of color, which are already disproportionately bearing the brunt of police presence,” Chicurel-Bayard said.Chicurel-Bayard said there is concern that officers may respond to a false alarm with a heightened expectation of the situation. Chicurel-Bayard urged anyone with a concern to voice their thoughts and continue to push elected leaders and law enforcement for transparency in their efforts.Gauldin said the department has heard concerns and reviewing them, as well as other information about the program and how it is used in other cities, was a part of the process before bringing ShotSpotter technology online. “The department really did due diligence in researching gunshot system technology and made sure that we made a qualified selection of technology for the technology for the community,” she said. “(We) looked at the different criticisms, the benefits, the challenges in implementing the technology and ultimately determined that it was a component of our violent crime reduction strategy that we wanted to utilize because it was effective.”Gauldin said in the first few weeks, the technology has already been a “critical” resource for developing leads in cases. Further details about those cases specifically were not available Wednesday, a spokesperson for the department said, adding that the investigations are ongoing.
In an effort to reduce gun violence in Winston-Salem, the police department is expanding its Real Time Crime Center, adding new technology to its range of strategies to do so.
Using grant funding, the Winston-Salem Police Department launched ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection system, in August. The program identifies possible gunshots using sensors placed in the city. The alert is sent for a review back to ShotSpotter’s review center. If the alert is viable, the department said, the alert goes back to dispatchers within 60 seconds.
“It helps us keep the community safer by alerting us to gunfire incidents that occur in the community,” said Lt. Amy Gauldin, of the criminal investigations unit. “ShotSpotter has been wonderful to work with and the technology has really made a difference for our officers.”
A federal grant provided the roughly $700,000 in funding to purchase and implement the technology.
Gauldin said the alerts allow officers to quickly identify where gunshots may be occurring in the city, allowing officers to respond faster, improving the opportunity to give aid to anyone who may be hurt and tentatively begin collecting evidence.
The agency brought the technology online Aug. 19, Gauldin said. Since then, she said, 63 alerts have gone off with 225 rounds detected. She said sensors are located within 3 square miles and that the censor locations were determined based on data indicating areas of the city where gunfire has a history of occurring.
ShotSpotter has received criticism over the years.
“There are numerous surveillance technologies that are deployed in communities throughout North Carolina, also across the country, that do have serious concerns for people’s privacy and civil liberties and there are a number of consequences related to that,” said Dustin Chicurel-Bayard, communications director for the ACLU of North Carolina.
Dustin Chicurel-Bayard said there is general concern about where the technology is being used.
“We’ve seen, from other cities, that ShotSpotter itself is deployed overwhelmingly in communities of color, which are already disproportionately bearing the brunt of police presence,” Chicurel-Bayard said.
Chicurel-Bayard said there is concern that officers may respond to a false alarm with a heightened expectation of the situation. Chicurel-Bayard urged anyone with a concern to voice their thoughts and continue to push elected leaders and law enforcement for transparency in their efforts.
Gauldin said the department has heard concerns and reviewing them, as well as other information about the program and how it is used in other cities, was a part of the process before bringing ShotSpotter technology online.
“The department really did due diligence in researching gunshot system technology and made sure that we made a qualified selection of technology for the technology for the community,” she said. “(We) looked at the different criticisms, the benefits, the challenges in implementing the technology and ultimately determined that it was a component of our violent crime reduction strategy that we wanted to utilize because it was effective.”
Gauldin said in the first few weeks, the technology has already been a “critical” resource for developing leads in cases. Further details about those cases specifically were not available Wednesday, a spokesperson for the department said, adding that the investigations are ongoing.
Gloss