NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- New York City relies on gunshot detection technology that rarely works and regularly dispatches police to locations where no shooting occurred, a city comptroller’s audit found, suggesting the tool wastes officer time.
The New York City Police Department has employed SoundThinking Inc.’s ShotSpotter system, which uses microphones and audio software in an attempt to detect the sound of gunshots in neighborhoods, for nearly a decade. Its latest contract with SoundThinking is worth $22 million over three years and set to expire in December. When a sound triggers the system, ShotSpotter alerts the police department, and officers are dispatched to the scene.
An analysis of eight months of ShotSpotter alerts found that 87% of the time NYPD officers were dispatched to a scene where there was no evidence of a shooting or where they could not confirm a shooting occurred, according to the audit by New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. Officers were spending 20 minutes investigating claims that turned out to be unfounded and a half hour investigating shootings that they could not confirm, the audit found.
“The evidence shows that NYPD is wasting precious time and money on this technology and needs to do a better job managing its resources,” Lander said in a statement. “Chasing down car backfires and construction noise does not make us safer.”
The company has an array of more than 2,000 sensors in neighborhoods across New York City. They are placed on telephone poles, buildings and other elevated fixtures. Lander’s office reviewed the technology’s success rate over an eight-month period in 2022 and 2023.
It marks the latest report calling the technology’s efficacy into question. A 2021 audit by Chicago’s Office of Inspector General found that of more than 50,000 alerts there, only 9.1% resulted in evidence of a gun-related offense. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has sought to unwind the city’s contract with SoundThinking, though that effort has run into resistance from the city council.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire also said he would cancel the city’s contract with the company, telling the Houston Chronicle that it is a “gimmick.”
The NYPD has defended its use of the technology in the past, calling it a “highly effective crime-fighting tool.” New York City’s contract with SoundThinking is slated to end on Dec. 12. However, the NYPD appears poised to renew again, according to Lander’s report. In response to the comptroller’s suggestion that the department pause renewal and conduct a more thorough evaluation of the technology, the NYPD said its hands are tied. “Non-renewal of ShotSpotter services may endanger the public,” the department told Lander’s office, adding that a pause would be premature. “It’s not feasible to conduct an evaluation prior to the renewal period.”