Does Gunshot Detection Technology Actually Work?
Critics say the ability of ShotSpotter, widely used among U.S. police forces, to differentiate among various loud noises has not been proven to reduce serious violent crime.
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Critics of ShotSpotter, a technology widely used by U.S. police forces to report and locate gun fire, say it confuses gunshots with other noises, like slamming doors, resulting in police officers rushing to a perfectly peaceful area on unnecessarily high alert and creating a risk of violent interactions out of thin air, reports Axios. The police reform group Campaign Zero is launching a campaign to convince cities to stop using ShotSpotter, the technology’s manufacturer, as communities struggle with rising gun violence.
Campaign Zero says ShotSpotter’s ability to differentiate among various loud noises has never been independently validated, has not been proven to reduce serious violent crime, and that it increases the number of high-intensity interactions between police and civilians. ShotSpotter disputes these claims, arguing that its technology operated at a 97 percent aggregate accuracy rate for real-time detections, across all of its customers, between 2019 and 2021, and pointing to several studies by universities that showed the technology helped reduce crime.
