Council talks tech at retreat
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on February 25, 2016 1:46 PM
Officers with the Goldsboro Police Department could soon be responding to gunshots in the city limits quicker than ever, reducing crime and making the city safer for citizens.
The Goldsboro City Council heard a presentation Wednesday during the first day of its annual two-day retreat on the logistics of implementing a gunshot locating technology -- called ShotSpotter -- in the Goldsboro city limits.
This was one of many presentations made during the first day of the council's retreat at the Goldsboro Events Center, but was the only presentation that caused the council to ask questions for an hour afterwards. The implementation of ShotSpotter technology was also discussed during the City Council retreat last year, but this is the first time the council has heard specifics about the implementation of the technology.
The service uses sensors to triangulate the position of a gun when it is fired and reports it to officers within one minute, allowing for a rapid response from local police.
Phil Dailly, director of sales for the southeast region of the United States for the ShotSpotter company, came to the council retreat to detail costs, implementation and the benefits of using such a system.
He said putting the system in place allows for officers to quickly respond to shootings that might not otherwise be reported. Dailly said national data shows only 20 percent of all gunshots are reported through 911 in any given city.
"Unfortunately, what we find in some of these communities that are most impacted by gun violence is that people have given up, often times, on law enforcement in terms of calling in gunshots, for a number of reasons," Dailly said.
Aside from the lack of reports of gunshots in a community, Dailly said the typical 911 call that reports shots fired in an area lacks specificity -- another problem that is fixed by ShotSpotter technology.
"Unless someone is an eye witness to an event, often times they can be very vague in giving information in terms of where they think the gun fire came from," Dailly said.
Reporting times between people calling in gunshots versus the technology reporting the shots fired is also much slower.
When people call in gunshots, the call comes, on average, four minutes after the shots are fired. ShotSpotter locates and reports the shots fired in under a minute.
"With ShotSpotter you get ubiquitous, almost 100 percent gun fire coverage within your target areas," Dailly said. "It gives you a specific and exact location within 30 feet of where the shots were fired within 30 to 60 seconds."
Implementing three square miles of the technology in Goldsboro -- the minimum coverage amount required by the company to begin using their service -- would cost $225,000 for the first year, and $195,000 for each subsequent year the technology is used.
There is not yet a projected date for when the city might begin implementing and operating the ShotSpotter system.
The City Council will reconvene for the second day of its annual retreat today, again meeting at the Goldsboro Events Center at 1501 S. Slocumb St. from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.