MEMPHIS, Tenn. — In April, the Memphis Police Department deployed a new technology to fight the problem of gun violence.
FOX13 checked up on the promise that ShotSpotter would help officers find out who’s firing weapons more quickly.
It was a $650,000 investment that is supposed to locate gunfire almost immediately and give officers a head start in responding.
A FOX13 investigation found disturbing numbers that were almost overwhelming and asked the Memphis Police Department if the system was working.
Just like the blue lights that light up the nights in South Memphis, the “shots fired” call over police radios is so commonplace it’s almost background noise.
Lee “Pop” Crumb hears it from inside his tamale shop on Park Avenue in Orange Mound.
“Quite often,” Crumb told FOX13. “I just think there’s too many guns out there.”
ShotSpotter is supposed to help Memphis Police get those guns and the people pulling the triggers off the street.
“80 to 90% of gunfire goes unreported,” ShotSpotter Director Ron Teachman told FOX13.
Teachman explained how ShotSpotter is being used in 120 cities in the US, including Chicago, Oakland, and Birmingham.
“Our customers over the last several years have told us we’re 97% accurate,” he said.
ShotSpotter uses a series of special microphones that detect gunfire. They are placed throughout the neighborhood. When a shot is fired, MPD is notified. Specialists analyze the sound with a computer and then dispatch officers to the exact location within 60 seconds.
“Every alert gets checked,” Maj. Byron Braxton with MPD told FOX13.
Every alert. All 5,000 alerts that have come in since ShotSpotter was deployed in April.
The system has detected fully automatic weapons being fired in Memphis.
FOX13 asked MPD how many had been logged.
“So far, we’ve gotten four total,” Maj. Braxton said. “We’ve got one last week. We have two of the previous months and one early on in exception of the most full auto alert rounds that we’ve gotten is 20 at one time.”
FOX13 asked how many arrests have been made based on ShotSpotter alerts.
Out of 5,000 shots detected, Memphis Police have made 15 arrests and confiscated 21 guns using the technology.
The first was made just two weeks after the sensors were put in place. Officers responded to a ShotSpotter alert on Saratoga Street and, just minutes later, arrested a man with a recently-fired weapon and several rounds of ammunition, along with enough drugs to warrant an intent to distribute charge.
RELATED: MPD makes first arrest using new ShotSpotter technology
Is ShotSpotter worth the investment?
MPD continues to think so.
“So far, with the potential that it has, I think it’s a great investment,” said Braxton. “It is well worth it. We still got a little more time before we can just really hash that out. Once we get through the first year and see how it goes into play, it’s a lot of things that we’ve got to do to help supplement it.”
Braxton told FOX13 there had been no complaints from citizens about ShotSpotter or the way it’s being used.
Pop Crumb says he likes the idea if it helps to quiet the nights around his place.
“Put the guns down. Talk to each other. They could all be friends,” Crumb said.
That $650,000 price tag was paid for entirely by a federal grant.
It covers the cost of a three-year contract and pays for the equipment and training.
It is hard to say if the technology is working to reduce crime in other cities where it’s being used. Even ShotSpotter’s own numbers don’t reflect a reduction in gun crime if you just look at nationwide data. ShotSpotter’s own “National Gunfire Index” says the system detected 141,452 gunfire events in 2019. That is the most recently available data from the company, and it is an increase of 32 percent over the 107,000 incidents reported in 2018.
ShotSpotter says the increase is “primarily due to the expansion of the ShotSpotter customer base and expansion of coverage areas for existing customers.”
On its website, the company points to reductions in gun crime in places like San Diego and Palm Beach County, Florida. But when you look at recent spikes in other places like Chicago, it’s hard to compare apples to apples.
MPD says the system hasn’t been in place long enough to draw any conclusions.
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