The city holds a $3.5 million contract with the private company, which council members touched on during a presentation of ShotSpotter data garnered over its last two years of operation in Houston's Southeast Patrol Division.
“This is a lot of money that we are spending, and it’s taxpayer dollars — are we learning anything from this technology that we haven’t learned before?" Council Member Abbie Kamin asked. “In your opinion, is the technology worth what we’re paying for right now?”
Martin said the technology has helped officers uncover evidence and recover gun cartridges while boosting community confidence in faster police response times. The assistant chief also said the devices have helped save three lives through fast alerts emitted by the system.
“I believe that it has been worthwhile,” Martin said, stating the technology had also given the department a better understanding of where gunfire is occurring in the city.
Martin also addressed council members' concerns about where ShotSpotter decides to place its technology in the city, claiming such matters are determined by HPD data of known gunfire in the city.
“The way we have determined our areas of deployment is 100 percent based on data regarding gunfire,” Martin said. “We went where the gunfire was.”
Later, a ShotSpotter representative echoed the chief's remarks in a written statement: “Coverage areas are determined using objective, historical data on shootings.”
Martin compared ShotSpotter sensors to a Google Home device, saying they are “always listening” but only monitoring sounds that register as potential gunfire.
Martin told council members that nearly 11 square miles of Houston are currently under watch by ShotSpotter devices. This includes five square miles in the Southeast Division, Martin said, where there are 150 sensors costing about $74,000 per device for a year's subscription.
Asked where these devices are located, Martin said HPD does not know the precise location of each sensor due to the private company's unclear documentation of such info. At the end of the presentation, Houston residents denounced the technology and asked the city to retract its standing $3.5 million contract with ShotSpotter and use the money instead for community resources.
So far this year, ShotSpotter has sent 289 published alerts to HPD officers, according to Martin. Four people have been arrested, and four charges have been filed following police responses to ShotSpotter alerts.
Martin said that in the last two years, ShotSpotter has reported nine false positives that did not turn out to be gunshots and seven false negatives where the devices incorrectly diagnosed actual gunfire as something else.
(c)2023 the Houston Chronicle. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
