#shotspotter — Public Fediverse posts

More information on Cambridge's upcoming #ShotSpotter vote and actions you can take is available from the #StopShotSpotter coalition here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xh3yfo9bPVAKtYTJjMwvV1rg9q-tBwsgUtGsO3VJKZs/edit?tab=t.0

#surveillance #privacy #CambridgeMA #MAPol #MAPoli

Things you can do to help end the use of #ShotSpotter in #CambridgeMA

* Attend the City Council Meeting on May 11th either in person (at 795 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge or over zoom https://cambridgema.zoom.us/s/97895847144)

* Send emails to the Cambridge City Council ([email protected])

* Sign up for public comment (https://www.cambridgema.gov/Departments/CityCouncil/PublicCommentSignUpForm)

#privacy #surveillance #MAPol #MAPoli

Big news! Following last week's Public Safety meeting on #ShotSpotter, Cambridge City Council will be meeting on Monday May 11th to vote on a policy order to end the City’s use of ShotSpotter microphones and remove the devices from Cambridge neighborhoods.

#CambridgeMA #surveillance #privacy #MAPol #MAPoli

@pmarrone

I've never heard of that product, unless you mean ShotSpotter or Flock gunshot detection microphones that happen to be mounted on street lights, in which case sure, that's what what we're fighting. #CambridgeMA has #ShotSpotter mounted in certain (demographically predictable) neighborhoods, and we want them to take it down.

But it's also possible that there's another product I don't know about, so do let me know if you know more!

Tomorrow, @CambridgeMA is holding a Public Safety hearing about #ShotSpotter, a surveillance technology that claims to be able to identify gunshots but in fact has a very high error rate. ShotSpotter operates by installing (often hidden) microphones in (often black and brown) neighborhoods.

There's information here about signing up to give testimony:
https://www.theblackresponsecambridge.com/events/sign-up-for-public-comment-shotspotter-hearing-happening-tomorrow-april-29

#surveillance #MAPol #MAPoli

If you'd like to give in-person or virtual comment at the Cambridge City Council hearing on #ShotSpotter, the hearing link is now open for public comment: https://www.cambridgema.gov/Departments/CityCouncil/PublicCommentSignUpForm

#CambridgeMA #StopShotSpotterCamberville #StopShotSpotter

For residents of Cambridge, Massachusetts and surrounding communities, on June 2, 2025, Cambridge City Council is holding a hearing reviewing the city's use of #ShotSpotter audio surveillance technology.

This technology claims to use AI to specifically identify the sounds of gunshots, but in fact is highly unreliable, and primarily results in higher policing of the disproportionately black and brown neighborhoods where the devices are deployed.

#stopshotspotter #CambridgeMA #MAPoli #MaPol

Surveillance fan #SeattleMayor #BruceHarrell appears to be giving up on Shotspotter style surveillance in our fair city but won’t give up all the cameras or facial recognition software so dear to the mentality of paranoid real estate, tourism and chain store interests. #Seattle #Shotspotter #surveillance #DontMakeMyCityAThemePark
https://publicola.com/2024/05/31/mayors-office-nixes-shotspotter-style-gunshot-locator-in-updated-surveillance-proposal/

Shots Fired: Congressional Letter Questions #DHS Funding of #ShotSpotter

There is a growing pile of evidence that cities should drop Shotspotter, the notorious #surveillance system that purportedly uses acoustic sensors to detect #gunshots due to its inaccuracies and the danger it creates in communities where it’s installed.
#privacy

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/05/shots-fired-congressional-letter-questions-dhs-funding-shotspotter

#ShotSpotter Keeps Listening for #Gunfire After Contracts Expire

Internal emails suggest that the company continued to provide #gunshot data to #police in cities where its contracts had been canceled.
#privacy

https://www.wired.com/story/shotspotter-keeps-listening-contracts-expire/

@twrling #oakland #Shotspotter footprint
in other news: Chicago and others are stepping away from using Shotspotter: https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/24/us/shotspotter-cities-choose-not-to-use
#OPD

"Nearly 70 percent of people who live in a neighborhood with at least one SoundThinking sensor identified in the ACS data as either Black or Latine. Nearly three-quarters of these neighborhoods are majority nonwhite, and the average household earns a little more than $50,000 a year". #Shotspotter #GunshotDetection #Surveillance https://www.wired.com/story/shotspotter-secret-sensor-locations-leak/?

"Nearly 70 percent of people who live in a neighborhood with at least one SoundThinking sensor identified in the ACS data as either Black or Latine. Nearly three-quarters of these neighborhoods are majority nonwhite, and the average household earns a little more than $50,000 a year". #Shotspotter #GunshotDetection #Surveillance https://www.wired.com/story/shotspotter-secret-sensor-locations-leak/?

Here Are the #Secret Locations of #ShotSpotter #Gunfire Sensors

The locations of #microphones used to detect #gunshots have been kept hidden from police and the public. A WIRED analysis of leaked coordinates confirms arguments critics have made against the technology.
#privacy #surveillance

https://www.wired.com/story/shotspotter-secret-sensor-locations-leak/

The Effect of ShotSpotter on Police Response Times
https://michaeltopper.netlify.app/research/jmp_michael_topper.pdf

...Using comprehensive 911 dispatch data from the Chicago Police Department,we find that ShotSpotter causes police officers to be dispatched 1 minute slower(23%increase) and arrive on-scene nearly two-minutes later (13%increase)...police officers ’success rate in arresting perpetrators decreases by approximately 9%,with notably large decreases for domestic battery (14%)...

#Shotspotter #Chicago #efficacy #responsetime

N.J. city to expand controversial gunshot detection system using $1M grant
https://www.nj.com/essex/2023/09/nj-city-to-expand-controversial-gunshot-detection-system-using-1m-grant.html

...the City Council approved expanding the city’s ShotSpotter system, voting unanimously to accept a $1M grant from the state... to install the technology in areas of the East and North wards. The city began using ShotSpotter in 2011...

#privacy #Shotspotter #Newark #NewJersey #guns #crime #overpolicing

#ShotSpotter is a SCAM at best.

According to Mark-Anthony Middleton , it's biggest booster on the Durham City Council, "the technology is not designed to pick up acoustical signatures from inside a vehicle or a building."

This is just more funding for over-policing that does nothing to help our communities be safer, healthier, or less violent.

#stopShotSpotter #DurhamNC #defundThePolice

Why didn't ShotSpotter sensors notify Durham police of weekend's mass shooting?
https://www.wral.com/amp/why-didn-t-shotspotter-sensors-did-not-notify-durham-police-of-sunday-s-mass-shooting/20654929/