2008 Woodie Awards
City votes to use gunshot detectors
Gabrielle Dunn
Issue date: 2/8/07 Section: News
In a 12-0 vote on Jan. 31, the Boston City Council approved the installation of bullet-detection technology in a five-mile area comprising parts of Dorchester, Mattapan, Roxbury and the South End.
The portable microphone technology, called ShotSpotter, installed by a California-based company of the same name, uses the sound of a gunshot and acoustical triangulation to pinpoint the shooter's exact location as a dot on a map and to alert a dispatch center.
Gregg Rowland, Sr., vice president of sales and marketing for ShotSpotter, Inc. said since the affirmative vote, a contract is in the works between the city of Boston and the company.
Rob Consalvo, City Councilor for District 5, said he brought the technology to Mayor Thomas M. Menino's attention last spring.
Since gaining his support, two public hearings and two live demonstrations at the Boston Police Department's firing range on Moon Island in Quincy were held to educate city officials and citizens about ShotSpotter.
The $1.5 million technology is already at work in cities like Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Minneapolis and Rochester, NY, where Rowland said arrests for shooters have doubled and violent crimes have been reduced 30- to 35- percent.
Consalvo said the technology not only pinpoints the location of the gunfire within a two-mile radius but also tells police how many shooters there were, how many bullets were discharged, how many guns were used, if the shooter was driving or standing and what direction the drive-by car traveled after the shooting took place.
According to Rowland, ShotSpotter Inc. is working on a feature that would allow sensors to tell what kinds of bullets were fired as well.
Some residents, like junior media studies major Marissa Curry, don't see a need for Shotspotter in their neighborhoods. "I lived in the South End my whole life and never felt unsafe," Curry said, adding that she'd never heard of bullet detection technology. "Don't they have more dangerous neighborhoods to [install] that in?"
The portable microphone technology, called ShotSpotter, installed by a California-based company of the same name, uses the sound of a gunshot and acoustical triangulation to pinpoint the shooter's exact location as a dot on a map and to alert a dispatch center.
Gregg Rowland, Sr., vice president of sales and marketing for ShotSpotter, Inc. said since the affirmative vote, a contract is in the works between the city of Boston and the company.
Rob Consalvo, City Councilor for District 5, said he brought the technology to Mayor Thomas M. Menino's attention last spring.
Since gaining his support, two public hearings and two live demonstrations at the Boston Police Department's firing range on Moon Island in Quincy were held to educate city officials and citizens about ShotSpotter.
The $1.5 million technology is already at work in cities like Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Minneapolis and Rochester, NY, where Rowland said arrests for shooters have doubled and violent crimes have been reduced 30- to 35- percent.
Consalvo said the technology not only pinpoints the location of the gunfire within a two-mile radius but also tells police how many shooters there were, how many bullets were discharged, how many guns were used, if the shooter was driving or standing and what direction the drive-by car traveled after the shooting took place.
According to Rowland, ShotSpotter Inc. is working on a feature that would allow sensors to tell what kinds of bullets were fired as well.
Some residents, like junior media studies major Marissa Curry, don't see a need for Shotspotter in their neighborhoods. "I lived in the South End my whole life and never felt unsafe," Curry said, adding that she'd never heard of bullet detection technology. "Don't they have more dangerous neighborhoods to [install] that in?"
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