ShotSpotter: gunshot detection system raises privacy concerns on campuses

ShotSpotter: gunshot detection system raises privacy concerns on campuses
The technology’s microphones can help warn of shootings in a fraction of the time of 911 calls – but are they also picking up private conversations?
By Hannah Gold
Jul 17 2015
<http://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/jul/17/shotspotter-gunshot-detection-schools-campuses-privacy>

“How many of us have actually heard the sound of a gunshot? It’s much more difficult to identify than you may think.”

Damaune Journey, vice-president of security solutions at SST Inc, is explaining the benefits of his company’s product, ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection system that’s the latest in security technology.

Here’s how it works: in a given area, ShotSpotter sets up multiple sound-monitoring microphones, which detect gunfire based on the company’s algorithm. If ShotSpotter picks up anything, the audio recording is sent to a 24-hour monitoring center in Newark, California, where it’s reviewed by experts, many with previous law enforcement training. The results are then transmitted to local police officers.

According to ShotSpotter, all this takes approximately 30 seconds – significantly faster than the typical 3-5 minutes for the first person to call 911 once a shot is fired. 

The system has been installed for about a decade in high-crime urban areas and near military bases, in the US and overseas. ShotSpotter covers more than 300 square miles in at least 90 cities across the United States.

Now, the private gunshot detection company is branching out towards a new market of security tech consumers: college campuses.

In 2014 ShotSpotter launched its SecureCampus technology, offering the sound-monitoring hookup to campuses across the country. In September of that year, the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) became the first school in the nation to install ShotSpotter, and on 17 June, Newark Memorial high school’s principal, Phil Morales, a former police officer, announced it had become the first high school to plant the technology throughout its campus. So far only these two schools have bought ShotSpotter, but it probably won’t stay that way for long. 

“We’ve had a variety of colleges interested in the project, from all over the country – east and west, large and small,” Journey said. “The interest seems to be growing.”

Journey would not reveal how many schools are considering adopting ShotSpotter, but he did say: “We haven’t deployed it in any elementary schools at this point in time, but we certainly know that the technology is useful in all sorts of settings.”

The company is hoping there will soon be a groundswell in the use of ShotSpotter in schools. A paragraph from the SecureCampus page of ShotSpotter’s website reads: “In the next few decades, this indoor/outdoor safety technology will be as commonplace as fire alarms and sprinkler systems are today.” 

But sprinkler systems don’t come with built-in invasion-of-privacy implications, which some experts and politicians worry about with ShotSpotter.

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