Around 20 square miles within Washington, DC — or one-third of the nation’s capital — is monitored by acoustic sensors that help police officers identify crime scenes where gunshots may have been fired only seconds earlier. The Washington Post reported extensively on the ShotSpotter crime-fighting surveillance tool over the weekend and how the city’s Metropolitan Police Department has invested millions of dollars into maintaining a network of sensors deployed across the District of Columbia. The MPD prefers not to publish details about the operation, as revealing the locations of more than 300 ShotSpotter devices could lead criminals to purposely avoid certain locales and flock to others, or even vandalize the high-tech hubs used to transmit data from possible crime scenes to local facilities. “It is a valuable tool that provides almost instantaneous alerts that allow officers to be dispatched quicker for the sound of gunshots,” Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier wrote in a statement to the Post. “It has also been instrumental in determining crime trends and establishing information in investigations.” A gift of $2 million in federal grant money allowed DC to first install ShotSpotter sensors eight years ago, and the District has since invested another $3.5 million towards maintaining a tool that local law enforcement praises as a powerful crime fighting implement. Eight years after first being installed across DC, the sensors continue to provide the MPD with a detailed outline of where throughout the city shots have been fired. Coupled with an expansive surveillance system that rivals other major metropolitan cities in the United States, ShotSpotter gives law enforcement the power to re-assemble the pieces of violent acts with accuracy that likely wouldn’t be otherwise possible.
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 22:31:57 +0000
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