ShotSpotter Technology Improving with Age
By: Tina Shively
Updated: February 26, 2013
It's called ShotSpotter technology, and it helped the Rochester Police Department make a felony arrest within the first 48 hours it was up and running.
Officers gave our Tina Shively a behind the scenes look at the technology.
RPD has more than 100 ShotSpotter sensors around the city, but they wouldn't say where they are, or even what they look like because they don't want people to destroy them.
However, we do know it's proven to work.
ShotSpotter is a high tech system that allows officers to pinpoint the exact location of gunfire.
The system hears the sound, sends it to the company's headquarters in California, and identifies it.
Gunshots are then sent back to RPD and 911, all within a minute.
Julie Gulino monitors shotspotter and the RPD surveillance cameras in this control room.
She said "Immediately when shots are fired, the camera systems start into play."
The job is done 24 hours a day seven days a week.
She doesn't know how many sensors there are, or even where they're located. Neither do officers, but they do know they work.
Richard Shipman, is serving 4 years in prison for Criminal Possession of a weapon, thanks to ShotSpotter.
Almost two years ago to the day, ShotSpotter recorded gunshots in the backyard of this Trenamen street home.
Officers on patrol nearby got the shotspotter alert, showed up and began following a car speeding down the street.
They say the driver was acting strangely as they followed her around the corner.
Officer Joel Hasper and his partner pulled the car over on Norton Street, and began questioning a visibly nervous Shipman.
"He steps out of the car reaches in his waistband and pulls this sawed-off gun right out as he's standing there and then throws it out and tries to run but we had the door in his way so Officer Labida got him and took him into custody."
Since then, ShotSpotter has gotten in a sense, smarter.
Due to repitition, it learns to better identify what it hears and distinguishes between say fireworks and gunshots.
It's lead to more accurate police work, more arrests and convictions.
Gulino added "You catch the victim a lot faster, you can help people a lot faster and on the other hand you can pick up the bad guys off the street a lot faster because now you know exactly where you're going."
The system was initailly paid for by a federal grant in 2006, it cost about $124,000 a year to maintain.
