Hell Gate: 83 Percent of ShotSpotter Alerts Might Not Have Been Gunfire at All

Hell Gate: 83 Percent of ShotSpotter Alerts Might Not Have Been Gunfire at All by Nick Pinto (“ShotSpotter, the gunshot detection system used by the NYPD since 2015, doesn’t work—if what you mean by ‘work’ is ‘accurately alert police to confirmed gunfire.’ If, on the other hand, you’re looking for a system that gives police a technological excuse to charge into already overpoliced neighborhoods and start questioning people even in the absence of any confirmed gunshots, well, ShotSpotter might be working great. That’s the conclusion of a new report released by Brooklyn Defender Services on Wednesday, which offers the most thorough picture yet of the NYPD’s ShotSpotter program, which uses a network of microphones mounted in neighborhoods to alert the police to suspected gunfire.”).