I’ve been reading the Sun-Times criticism of the ShotSpotter technology. I am a retired Lieutenant who has been with the New York City Police Department for 20 years. I was there when ShotSpotter was implemented in my precinct in 2016. I am writing to inform you of information that the reader may not be aware of.
In urban high-crime areas where hundreds of people have been shot and thousands of shots fired, citizens stop calling 911 after every shot. Before ShotSpotter, we often heard gunshots in the distance and waited for 911 to get to the scene. If he did get a call, many of the calls were from the actual shooting block, and he called a minute or three after the shooting occurred.
After the ShotSpotter, I heard a gunshot, and in about 15 seconds I received the location (123 Main Street) and number of bullets fired, and I could immediately hear the sound captured on the department’s phone. I respond to the location and usually find evidence of a shooting at the scene.
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The system is not foolproof. Noisy exhaust fumes, construction equipment, and other objects can cause false positives. As such, ShotSpotter was not implemented city-wide. It was used in high-crime areas with frequent shooting incidents.
By responding quickly to shooting incidents, officers may be able to stop shooters in action, assist shooting victims, and arrest suspects more quickly than if they had to wait for a 911 call. I have.
Additionally, if officers know the exact location where the shooting is taking place, detectives can obtain video evidence of the shooter and recover ballistic evidence linking the gun to the shooting. When defense attorneys for “Little Johnny” attempt to claim that he was just a scared kid holding a gun for someone, prosecutors found that Little Johnny was involved in multiple shootings and that his neighborhood had been murdered. I can show evidence that I have been terrorizing people for months.
James Vroman, Former Lieutenant, NYPD, Wilmington, NC
Classified Documents, Biden vs. Trump
This is a reply to the author who wrote about how President Joe Biden’s reaction to the discovery of classified documents is justified compared to Donald Trump’s reaction. error. If the Democrats thought Biden was so righteous, they would have informed the American public in a timely manner. Apparently, they were discovered before the Intermediate Period.
Instead, Democrats kept their findings secret. The American public was never given a chance to judge how righteous Biden was. I have been on the sidelines about the “stolen” election calls. But I think the deliberate failure to inform voters while politically using the FBI to raid Trump’s home is concrete evidence of a stolen midterm election. That is what was once called “banana” republican politics.
Jim Harras, Norwich
