I have been reading the Sun-Times’ criticism of ShotSpotter technology. I am a retired lieutenant with 20 years of service in the New York Police Department. I was around when ShotSpotter was implemented in my precinct in 2016. I am writing to inform your readers of some information they might not be aware of.
In urban, high-crime neighborhoods in which hundreds of people are shot and thousands of rounds fired, citizens stop calling 911 for every shooting. On many occasions, prior to ShotSpotter, I would hear gunfire off in the distance and had to wait for 911 calls to direct me to the scene. If we received any calls, many of the calls were blocks from the actual shooting, and they came over one to three minutes from the gunfire occurring.
After ShotSpotter, I would hear gunfire, and within 15 seconds or so, I would receive a location (i.e., 123 Main Street) and the number of rounds fired and could immediately listen to the sounds captured on my department phone. I would respond to the location and usually find evidence of a shooting at that scene.
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The system is not foolproof. Loud exhaust, construction equipment and other things would occasionally cause false positives. For that reason, ShotSpotter was not implemented citywide. It was used in high-crime areas that had high incidents of shootings.
By quickly responding to shootings, officers are able to possibly stop active shooters, render aid to shooting victims and apprehend suspects faster than they would have if they had to wait for 911 calls.
In addition, when officers know where shootings are precisely occurring, detectives can obtain video evidence of the shooters and recover ballistic evidence linking the gun to the shooting. When “Little Johnny’s” defense attorney tries to argue that he was a scared kid only holding a gun for someone, the prosecutor can possibly show evidence that Little Johnny has been involved in multiple shootings, terrorizing his neighborhood for months.
James Vroman, retired lieutenant, NYPD, Wilmington, North Carolina
Classified documents, Biden vs. Trump
This is in response to the writer who wrote about how righteous President Joe Biden’s reaction to the discovery of classified documents is compared to Donald Trump’s reaction. Wrong. If the Democrats thought Biden was so righteous, they would have informed the American people in a timely manner. Apparently, they were uncovered prior to the mid-terms.
Instead, the Democrats kept the discovery secret. The American people were not given the opportunity to determine just how righteous Biden was. I have been on the sidelines about calls about a “stolen” election. However, the willful failure to inform us voters while politically using the FBI to raid Trump’s home is I think concrete evidence of stolen midterm elections. That is what once was labelled “banana” republic politics.
Jim Halas, Norridge
