Special to 1812Blockhouse
The company that created the audio gunshot detection system that was discussed with Mansfield City Council earlier this year, and which was the basis for a one year trial project with the Mansfield Police Department, has announced that contract as one of seven new agreements with cities across the country.
ShotSpotter, Inc., a leader in precision policing solutions that enable law enforcement to more effectively respond to, investigate and deter crime, today announced new contracts with seven U.S. cities, all with populations less than 50,000, to deploy ShotSpotter Respond™, the company’s flagship gunshot detection solution, as part of an increasing trend of small cities adopting big city tools for preventing and reducing gun violence.
In a year of a global pandemic, along with unprecedented social and political unrest, the rate of gun violence has skyrocketed across the U.S. To help small cities address gun violence, ShotSpotter began an outreach program to this underserved segment. The result has been new ShotSpotter customers adopting the Company’s flagship gunshot detection technology including four that have already been deployed, in North Chicago Ill., Monroe, La., Kankakee, Ill., and Ferguson, Mo., as well as soon-to-be deployed cities of McKeesport, Pa., Mansfield, and Freeport, Ill.
North Chicago, a suburb 30 miles outside Chicago with 30,000 residents, has been using ShotSpotter since September. “We are a smaller city, but are no less susceptible to the ravages of gun violence in our community,” said Mayor Leon Rockingham, Jr. of North Chicago. “Rather than wait for a problem to get out of hand, our city has chosen to preemptively address this issue with ShotSpotter. In just the first three months we have already seen very impressive results. We look forward to the long term impact ShotSpotter will make for the safety of the residents of North Chicago.”
With approximately 26,000 residents, Kankakee is 60 miles south of Chicago and began its deployment in November. “We are finding that the ShotSpotter technology is making our community safer in a financially responsible way by maximizing the impact of our officers’ response to shots fired calls,” said Frank Kosman, Kankakee Chief of Police. “With this tool, officers are able to respond quicker and to the precise location of shootings with more information. Giving agencies of our size access to this important tool is critical for increasing the effectiveness of the investigations of shots fired calls and makes a statement that our city is taking proactive steps to reduce gun violence.”
These small city contracts reflect a significant new customer segment for ShotSpotter and include more than 850 potential law enforcement agencies across the country. ShotSpotter has been widely used for years typically by large to medium sized cities such as Miami, San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York, Baltimore and Chicago.
“Reducing gun violence is a shared goal for every city – large, small, red, blue – it is something we can all agree on and ShotSpotter’s goal is to be part of the solution,” said Ralph A. Clark, President and CEO of ShotSpotter. “Smaller cities are particularly receptive to the benefits of ShotSpotter as they can move quickly to evaluate, adopt and deploy the technology for results that impact their communities exponentially.”
Image by Frank Magdelyns from Pixabay
