Update: This story has been updated to include an NYPD response received after publication.
In the most damning report yet on the inefficiency of gunshot detection technology, a public advocacy organization released an analysis Wednesday showing that fewer than 1 percent of alerts generated by New York City’s ShotSpotter system in a nine-year period led to the recovery of a firearm or the identification of a suspect in an armed crime.
Of the more than 75,000 gunshot alerts generated by the city’s ShotSpotter system since 2015, the New York Police Department was only able to confirm that 16.57 percent of them were actual gunshots, as opposed to fireworks, construction or other loud sounds, according to the Brooklyn Defenders report. The analysis is based on nine years of NYPD data, including assessments by department employees of whether the alerts were true or false, which the Brooklyn Defenders obtained through a public records request.
“Like many other extremely expensive and invasive NYPD technologies, ShotSpotter is a driver of excessive policing that leads to an influx of police into Black and Latino neighborhoods based on false gunshot alerts,” Jackie said Gosdigian, senior political supervisor of Brooklyn Defenders. in a statement. “Given the tool’s lack of reliability and high price, it is clear that New York should not renew its contract for this technology. Instead, the city should use this investment for initiatives that actually make our communities safer: education, healthcare, poverty reduction, violence treatment, community programs and other resources.”
New York City’s contract with SoundThinking, the company behind ShotSpotter, expires this month. By then, the city will have paid the company more than $54 million for the technology.
Gunshot detection sensors have come under fierce criticism from civil rights advocates and neighborhood groups who point out that the sensors are disproportionately installed in predominantly minority neighborhoods and that the alerts trigger emergency responses by officers arriving expecting to find a shooter.
The Brooklyn Defender’s report is the largest of its kind and is based on NYPD data, but its findings are similar to other analyzes of gunshot detection technology in New York and other cities.
Earlier this year, the New York City Comptroller’s Office released a verify of ShotSpotter alerts over an eight-month period in 2022 and 2023. It concluded that only 13% of alerts could be definitively linked to gunshots.
The comptroller’s office also urged the NYPD not to renew its contract with ShotSpotter without first significantly increasing oversight and accountability mechanisms for the technology.
In 2021, the Chicago Office of Inspector General found that only 9% of ShotSpotter alerts over a 17-month period could be linked to gun crime. This year, Chicago canceled his contract with SoundThinking.
SoundThinking criticized the methodology behind each report by demonstrating that the majority of ShotSpotter alerts cannot be linked to actual shootings. “It is misleading and wrong to assume that the absence of physical forensic evidence of gunshots at a location where ShotSpotter alerted means that no gunshots actually occurred,” Jerome Filip, a company spokesperson, wrote in an email. email in response to the Brooklyn Defenders report. “It is well known that offenders do not remain at the scene after firing their weapons and often collect shell casings to avoid them being collected by police as evidence.”
An anonymous NYPD spokesperson highlighted the department’s response to that of the city comptroller verifywhich is included in the audit and contains similar arguments to those made by SoundThinking.
“The Department continually reviews the effectiveness of the technologies it uses to fight crime,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “ShotSpotter remains an integral tool in the NYPD’s mission to address gun violence and keep the public safe. The NYPD will continue to evaluate emerging technologies to ensure the safety of New York City.”
