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City launches ShotSpotter: Detection system instantly locates source of gunshots
(Palo Alto Daily News (Palo Alto, CA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Jan. 1--The East Palo Alto Police Department unveiled its newest crime-fighting tool on Monday -- a web of sensors that can instantly pinpoint the location of a gunshot.
Mountain View-based ShotSpotter Inc. is conducting a free test of its technology in a .5-square-mile section of East Palo Alto, said police Chief Ron Davis. The test got under way at 9 p.m. Monday.
Global positioning system-equipped sensors placed on the roofs of buildings use "acoustic triangulation" to draw a bead on the sound of a gun going off. That information is then relayed to dispatchers, and police can respond more quickly to the scene of the shooting.
Davis did not specify on which buildings the sensors were placed for the test, which has no firm end date.
Greg Rowland, ShotSpotter's senior vice president, noted that the test area in East Palo Alto has more than the necessary three sensors.
The system also records audio of the gunshots, which officers can play back, Rowland said.
"Over a long time, we can map where more crime is happening," Rowland said.
At a media demonstration Monday afternoon, Sgt. Robert Uchida climbed into the bed of a white pickup truck and fired his gun several times into a red bucket. Back at police headquarters, a red dot appeared on a monitor showing the precise location of the shots, 2500 Fordham St.
Davis said he hopes in the next 30 to 60 days to bring a proposal to the city council that would expand the free testing area to a contract for the whole city. Alternative funding, such as grants, will likely foot the bill, he said.
"We believe we may have secured that," Davis said.
Rowland said ShotSpotter systems are in place in 26 cities across the country, including Oakland, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Birmingham, Ala.
In Oakland, over a period of 13 months shooting incidents have dropped from roughly 500 in the first month to about 250 in October, Rowland said. The first city to install the system 13 years ago, Redwood City, has seen a roughly 80 percent drop in shootings, he added.
East Palo Alto Council Member David Woods said he expects the system to be even more effective in his city than in Oakland.
"We're much smaller than Oakland," he said. "The response time (in East Palo Alto) can be much quicker."
Davis said the ShotSpotter test -- combined with the department's new homicide tip line, 1-888-MURDER-0, which also debuted Monday -- marks the beginning of the first phase of the second year of Project Safe Neighborhood, an initiative launched following a spike in homicides early last year. Since February 2007, the city has seen a 22 percent decrease in serious crimes, he said. However, there was a slight rise in homicides, with seven occurring in 2007, compared with six in 2006, according to a department press release.
Mayor Patricia Foster said she believes the new measures will make an impact. "I do expect to see the decrease in the crime rate continue."
E-mail Kristina Peterson at kpeterson@dailynewsgroup.com.
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Copyright (c) 2008, Palo Alto Daily News, Calif.
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