What was sold to residents as a potential solution to Hartford's gun violence has instead proved to be a major drain on police resources. The Shot Spotter Technology was sold to local residents at community meetings as an intelligent system that was smart enough to determine the difference between gunfire, fireworks and other ambient noise such as backfires and construction noises.
The system would then triangulate the noise and analyze it and provide police with information within seconds of the location of any gunfire in the covered areas of the city
It now appears that Hartford's system isn't as intelligent as we were told and most likely graduated in the bottom of its class. The system is apparently on a trial basis for Hartford and was supposed to be tested and evaluated through June 30th. During the month of May over 98% of the activations were false alarms according to police sources, the majority of which were fireworks, which shotspotter is not supposed to send an alarm on.
The system also showed an alarming increase in gunfire in the Barry Square area during May until it was realized that the activations were actually noise and jackhammers from construction projects in the area.
The system also has placed a huge drain on police resources as two officers and a supervisor are required to respond to every shotspotter activation. The first officer assigned then has to write a report regarding the alarm and the supervisor has to write an unusual incident report whether the activation is gunfire or fireworks.
The system was so unreliable that it has now been shut down to get past the July 4th fireworks and the trial has been extended. Shotspotter representatives attended police roll calls this week to address the patrol officers required to respond to their false alarm activations and sources tell me it appeared to be a move by Shotspotter to salvage their system in Hartford.
New Haven is also using the shotspotter technology and according to media reports, New Haven Chief Dean Esserman is considering removing the system altogether due to its inefficiency. On New Years Eve in New Haven the system was actually shut down when it was overloaded by false alarms from fireworks. Media accounts also claim that New Haven's first homicide of 2012 was never detected by shotspotter, although the shooting took place in an area coverd by the system and numerous shell casings were found on the ground.
Information on how many of Hartford's recent shootings actually triggered a shotspotter response are unavailable at this time, but it should be renamed "bottlerocket spotter"
To read more on shotspotter in New Haven, click here
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13 comments:
They conveniently wanted to "tweak" shot spotter during the 4th of July firework holiday because they didn't want to further embarrass themselves that the system sucks.
I don't care about having to take a report. We all use fill-in-the-blank templates anyway because we have gone on so many erroneous calls. And for some reason when we are at our very busiest with all units tied up that stupid system goes off. It's a waste of resources and money.
To be honest, I think the system is amazing!!! Our city has the system installed and I haven't seen much crime around here lately, we do hear lots of pop and bang around here and the cop are out and about checking the area around. Sometime it might have its error but at least the cop are out of the street checking out these places. More lazy police that are suppose to be doing their job, instead of sitting around eating their donuts! City that put in these systems are really bad city that why you have them in the first place. Don't bash on something when your city isn't the bright and shinning star!!
Beside you do not need 3 police officers checking out one spot when you can have just 1 check out the area and if he/she needs back-up they will call for extra help!!! Now that is a waste of resources and money!!! Why? One can't do the job I guess not or they are too afraid to go alone!!
Anonymous 9:19 am
Please check your grammer ! Wow !
Anonymous 919am...you are a moron. Perhaps you should do a ride along on a saturday night and see that instead of "eating donuts"(which most of us don't even eat anyway, the only reason we go to DD is to get a caffine boost) we're actually getting pulled from call to call to call. That system that you speak so highly of and clearly know nothing about is a piece of crap. All it does is waste time and paper when other calls are holding. I have yet to go to one "shot spotter" created call that is actually legitimate. It's okay though, the citizens of Hartford are really understanding when our time is wasted answering shot spotter while they have to wait for an hour or more to see an officer. Thats right lets keep creating these calls so that legitimate complainants that may be considered non-active can keep getting pushed further and further down the list.
You clearly know nothing about police work. One officer to an alleged shots fired call...thats real brilliant. Its not a fear issue, there's very few of us who have ever acted out of fear or cowardice. Multiple officers to potentially violent calls is a safety issue. Our main job is to go home in one piece at the end of the day.
Ignorant people or citizens that have no concept of police work other then watching Hawaii 5-0 should keep their mouths shut..
You go and respond to shots fired and knife fights on martin st at 3am by yourself......
Hey Michael,
Great job trying to push out capitol liquors to make room for 25 more parking spaces.
what next, evict the day care center on laurel st?
Dear Aetna,
Please don't bully me around to force me to sell either. You have plenty of parking lots already. Im a small family run business and need to support my family.I can give u a 10% discount on food.
Thank you,
Piggy's Cafe
Greed and money, way to go Michael, you community relations meter just went down to negative...........
Why spend millions on system that provides no real investigative means. This company just sucked god knows how from the city. That money spent could have put into police funding which could have hired more officers and or usable equipment.
Last time I checked a 911 phone call is FREE.
Dear Aetna Michael,
Please dont try to push out any more small businesses from the community to make parking lots. The top two floors of your parking garage are empty anyways. Are parking spaces more important then small family run businesses to make ends meat, especially in this current economy?
Don't be a grinch in ho-ville.
sincerely, the ghost of the chicken man.........
I know a certain Aetna wanna be big wig who will be getting coal in his stocking this year....and maybe a gift certificate to burlington coat factory for nicer clothes.......
That booking b squad Sgt really needs help, im sick of going to funerals. Someone help him, seriously........At least have eap check on him every couple of days... Its not funny, its sad, but he is a human being, so HELP HIM....
Same goes for C squad booking Sgt.
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