shotspotter

[fyfer]

I'm getting better at telling apart gunshots (common) and fireworks (way more common) in my neighborhood. So when I heard three shots out my window just now, I was pretty certain they weren't fireworks. But then I heard the same pattern of three again, and then again, and I grudgingly admitted that no one was likely to be shooting like that

Comments

[octal]

when did the mission ungentrify enough to need this?

[cerevisiae]

There have been a lot of shootings recently, including 6 fatal shootings within a couple week this summer (a Chronicle summary).

[terpsichoros]

Only parts of the Mission ever gentrified. There has been this sort of thing going on forever.

Oakland has a system like this. It's only useful if there are enough cops to respond to everything, which Oakland does not, particularly at night.

[fyfer]

Um, yeah. The gangs have been here a long time. They've hugely increased police presence since this summer, so I haven't heard of much since then, though.

[jered]

ShotSpotter is pretty cool tech, and has an MIT TEP working there!

[blue_estro]

I haven't read much about it recently, but it was getting "oh noes, big brother" news play in some circles a while back (because clearly, anything that might be useful to law enforcement is just the man suppressing the people, again. Grrr,). As far as I can tell, the utility is getting to the scene of the potential crime faster rather than preventing anything. This give better the police a better chance at finding witnesses, and a much better chance of getting timely medical help to anyone who might have been shot.

[fyfer]

Yeah. I hope it helps.

[auros]

I know I've read that the triangulation system in London (you look at the times at which a shot registered on microphones put up at various locations, and track back to where it had to originate) has allowed to cops to be on-scene wherever a shot is fired in five minutes or less... One can hope the SF cops will be similarly prompt... Of course, it may be tough, since I'd wager there are more shots fired in SF (in ANY American city) because our gun laws are way less strict than Britain's. (Note to any NRA types: I'm not stating whether that's a good thing one way or the other -- just stating the fact.)