ShotSpotter, an acoustic system that detects gunshots, will be up for debate and possibly a final vote by the Springfield City Council at the Oct. 20 meeting.
The ordinance for a three-year renewal totaling $1.1 million is slated to be reintroduced after being taken off the agenda at a September council meeting. Springfield Mayor Misty Buscher told Illinois Times her administration was seeking more data on the effectiveness of the technology before bringing it up for a vote.
Data has since been obtained and confirms that the location of the detectors correlates with where a majority of shots fired occur, she said. The language of the ordinance itself is unchanged from when it was initially introduced.
“So, the statistics showed that from the shots fired that we had, either from a 911 call or a call for service, we found that 73% of the shots fired were within those sensor boundaries,” Buscher said.
ShotSpotter covers an estimated 5.25 square miles, mostly in wards 2,3 and 5, according to a report Springfield Police Department Chief Joseph Behl submitted to City Council members and obtained by Illinois Times. The sites of the detectors have not been made available to the public.
The number of illegal firearms recovered by the Springfield police each year show a significant increase after 2020 when ShotSpotter was implemented, according to the report.
Behl attributes the increase to the assistance of ShotSpotter, but also acknowledges other factors.
“While no single technology or enforcement strategy can be credited with reducing crime by itself, ShotSpotter has become an important component of a much larger strategy that includes proactive policing, investigations, community partnerships, violence prevention, youth engagement and the removal of illegal firearms,” he wrote in the report.
Illinois Times has asked Behl on two separate occasions for the number of confirmed shots fired versus false alarms, but has not received that information.
Then-Springfield Police Chief Kenny Winslow told IT in 2021 that police were only able to find corroborating evidence that there had been gunfire for 23% of ShotSpotter notifications.
Ward 2 Ald. Shawn Gregory brought forth an amendment Oct. 13 for City Council members to consider that would require annual reporting entailing “total alerts, confirmed gunfire incidents, false positives, and the percentages of confirmed and false alerts, including the methodology use to calculate accuracy.”
His amendment also calls for an “independent evaluation and data-informed deployment” of the technology and safeguards to protect privacy and civil liberties.
It reads in part: “ShotSpotter alerts shall be treated as investigative leads, not proof of a crime or individual guilt. All enforcement actions must comply with applicable law and departmental policy.”
The amendment also calls for public oversight with an annual report on ShotSpotter made available on the SPD Transparency website and presented at a City Council meeting before contract renewal, expansion or new discretionary funding decisions.
The ShotSpotter renewal ordinance lists Mayor Misty Buscher, Ward 1 Jeffrey Cox, Ward 7 Brad Carlson and Ward 10 Ralph Hanauer as supporters of the proposal.
