In recent months, the City of Cape Girardeau has experienced an uptick in crime— particularly gun-related crime. Just last week, local police investigated an instance of shots fired at an apartment complex.
During a City Council meeting on Monday, January 24, the request to subscribe to a new gun-fire sound sensor technology, Shotspotter, was approved by Cape Girardeau Mayor Bob Fox.
Through the technology, Shotspotter works in collaboration with local law enforcement to develop a coverage area, placing acoustic sensors on rooftops and utility poles.
After a gunshot is fired, sensors triangulate the positioning of the gunfire, then locate the individual. The sound is then sent to Shotspotter headquarters where the acoustics are reviewed and published by trained technicians to determine whether or not the sound was gunfire.
After being published as gunfire, results are sent to dispatch centers, police officer’s cell phones, tablets, and in-car computers, with additional information regarding details such as the street address nearest to the gunshots, timestamps, and whether the situation involved multiple shooters, or a high capacity weapon.
Former police officer for Richmond California, Jason Silva explained how these data specifications provided through the service allowed him to respond to situations in a tactical way.
“Having the ability to have the insight on what you're going into, has provided me insight into what tools I needed to have, knowing exactly where the gun took place at, I was easily able to set up the block with other officers, coordinate with their evidence collection, call the detectives if need be,” said Silva.
The service continues to be implemented in St. Louis County, where data collected by Spotshotter reported police were alerted to four times as many gunshot incidents during the study period than in comparable areas without.
Across the eight police beats with Shotspotter in St. Louis, reported assaults—which include gun-related assaults—declined by about 30 percent following the implementation of the technology.
Mayor Fox explained that the service will be paid for by the city through COVID-19 funds, and the service contract will last for 3 years.