At a time where government surveillance is in the public crosshairs, NYC officials have put a system in place called ‘ShotSpotter.’ The system is a pilot program that consists of 300 microphones across Brooklyn to detect shootings when and where they happen.
The New York Times reports:
“Today, we are rolling out cutting edge technology to make the city safer, to make our neighborhoods safer, to keep our officers safer,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio, who appeared with William J. Bratton, the police commissioner, to announce the initiative. “This gunshot detection system is going to do a world of good in terms of going after the bad guys.”
Image Source: RT/Screenshot
Despite its positive presentation, the new use of the technology has raised some concerns over various 4th Amendment issues and false alarms. Fusion.net reports that the ACLU has voiced concerns over the possible invasions of privacy that the microphones might pose to city residents:
“We are always concerned about secondary uses of technology that is sold to us for some unobjectionable purpose and is then used for other purposes,” Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, told Take Part. “If [ShotSpotter] is recording voices out in public, it needs to be shut down.”
ShotSpotter has addressed these concerns on its website:
“Unless someone is yelling loudly enough to be heard in public, and also doing so within two seconds before or four seconds after a loud, explosive acoustic incident, the audio will be flushed from the sensor’s buffer and overwritten. The simple fact is that there has never been a case of a private conversation overheard or monitored by any ShotSpotter sensor anywhere at any time. Period.”
On top of the privacy concerns, there has been an issue with false alarms. The ShotSpotter has racked up a 75% false alarm rate; calling into question the accuracy of the technology in contrast to the claims made by the company:
“A 2013 WNYC investigation of ShotSpotter devices in Newark, NJ, found that 75 percent of the gunshot alerts had been for false alarms, meaning that audio clips were taken when there is likely no crime in progress. In those instances, police were still deployed to the area.”
While some politicians, such as NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, have been very supportive of the new microphones, others have introduced legislation to keep the technology in check.
Letitia James, who is a public advocate for NYC has introduced a bill to the city council, which would require quarterly reports on the data gathered by the microphone system.
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