A gunshot detection technology called ShotSpotter has helped the Syracuse Police Department monitor violence across the city since it was implemented last year.

Syracuse’s Common Council voted earlier this month to provide SPD with the funds to renew the software for another year. The department has detected 434 gunshots since the program’s rollout in October 2017, compared to 239 reports the year before, said Police Chief Frank Fowler at an Oct. 9 council meeting.

SPD spokesperson Sgt. Richard Helterline said the city hasn’t seen a decrease in crime, but the department has made arrests by using ShotSpotter in its investigations.  

The software uses sensors placed throughout the city to detect gunshots, according to the company’s website. When one sensor detects a gunshot-like pulse, it uses algorithms to determine whether the sound was actually a gunshot. If three sensors pick up the sound, the information is sent to a database in California that can detect within three to five seconds whether or not the pulse was a gunshot. 

Helterline said SPD doesn’t disclose the exact locations of the sensors, but they are located in areas of Syracuse that have had previously high rates of shots fired. The software covers about 1.2 square miles in the city, he said.

Laura Angle | Digital Design Editor

In the United States, 90 cities use the software including Chicago; Cincinnati; Denver; New York City; and Oakland, California, according to ShotSpotter’s website. 

Fowler said at the Oct. 9 meeting that, in some cases, people hear gunshots and think other people will call the police to report them, which can lead to no one calling in the shots to 911. 

Councilor at-large Steve Thompson said the software eliminates false calls, such as firecrackers or fireworks. He also said it can sometimes specify the caliber of a weapon and the location. 

“Instead of officers having to go to an area and looking around a perimeter, they can go right to that location,” said Thompson, who previously served as police chief.  

When the database confirms the sound was a gunshot, the ShotSpotter applications send push notifications to the police department, which can then dispatch officers. This process takes less than 60 seconds, according to the ShotSpotter website. 

SPD First Deputy Chief Joe Cecile said at an Oct. 3 council meeting that many Syracuse police officers have the ShotSpotter application on their phones and laptops, so they can often see the location of the shots fired before emergency officials dispatch them to the location. 

There was a 21 percent decrease in shooting victims in Cincinnati from August 2017 to July 2018, according to a September press release from the city. There has also been a 40 percent decrease in homicides in the targeted area and adjacent neighborhoods, according to the release. 

The Denver Police Department began using the technology in early 2015. Between then and November 2017, the department has made 96 arrests and recovered 78 guns with the assistance of the software, according to the department’s website. 

Rochester saw a 40 percent decrease in gunshot incidents since implementing the technology, according to the ShotSpotter website.  

A one-year subscription for the software costs $227,500. Cecile said the department would eventually like to cover the majority of the city with the software. 

“I’m sure if money was no (object, SPD) would expand it to the entire city,” Helterline said. 

Thompson said he does not think it is necessary to cover the whole city with ShotSpotter technology, but instead would like sensors to be placed in the areas where the shots are being fired. 

“There aren’t shots fired in a lot of the areas of the city, so let’s concentrate on where this is going on,” Thompson said. “Let’s eliminate the fact of the weapons coming into the city illegally and get them off the street.”

Published on October 23, 2018 at 9:40 pm

Contact Dakota: dapalmer@syr.edu