Seattle moved one step closer to rolling out a gunshot detection pilot, after a bid by councilmembers to reroute funding away from the controversial technology failed on Tuesday.
Mayor Bruce Harrell, who has sought to get the city to test gunshot detection tech for years, allocated $1.8 million in his 2024 budget proposal for a “crime prevention pilot” that would include use of acoustic gunshot locator systems.
Seattle councilmembers voted 5-4 Tuesday to deny an amendment that would have allocated the funding to homelessness services instead of the gunshot detection system.
The technology works via the installation of acoustic sensors in neighborhoods which are used to identify the sound of gunshots and triangulate the location of those shots.
The tech is controversial and has received criticism from researchers and privacy advocates.
In a press release published this week, Seattle councilmember Lisa Herbold argued that ShotSpotter, sold by Fremont, Calif.-based publicly traded SoundThinking, “has been proven ineffective at stopping crime by almost every independent study done on it.”
“We absolutely need to do more to address gun violence, but this is just throwing money away,” Herbold said in a statement. “It’s money that we should be using to bring people experiencing homelessness, people who are disproportionately impacted by violence, into shelter and safety.”
A number of police departments tried ShotSpotter but ultimately stopped using the product, citing cost and lack of effectiveness, among other reasons.
However, cities such as Columbus, Cleveland, Newark and Detroit are expanding their use of ShotSpotter, the market leader in gunshot technology. Its products are used in more than 150 cities.
SoundThinking says it uses “sophisticated machine learning algorithms” to classify sounds as a potential gunshot, and has humans in the loop to confirm the audio. It says the system had a 97% “aggregate accuracy rate” from 2019-2021.
“Especially today, gun violence is an increasingly complex issue, and we understand that there is no single solution,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to GeekWire. “However, when used as a part of a comprehensive gun crime response strategy, ShotSpotter has been proven to help police respond to incidents of gunfire quickly, allowing first responders to do their jobs saving lives, collecting evidence, and locating witnesses.”
Harrell last year proposed $1 million for the gunfire tech but the council axed the funding.
“Mayor Harrell believes we need to advance every possible option to stem the tragic impacts of gun violence, which is why he proposed innovative new technologies in the budget,” a spokesperson for the mayor said in a statement.
The new proposed pilot program, funded via police department salary savings, would incorporate a CCTV system that could be connected to the acoustic gunshot locator system. Last year’s proposal was for a system that only used acoustic technology.
During an appearance at the GeekWire Summit in 2021, Harrell called ShotSpotter an evidence-gathering tool and not a crime-prevention tool. But he acknowledged that “it comes with some level of controversy, because people do not want to surveil.”
There are still several key steps before Seattle actually begins using gunshot detection technology.
The council passed an amendment Tuesday requiring the city to complete a racial equity analysis to evaluate the program’s impact on communities. The technology also needs to go through the city’s Surveillance Ordinance before the funding is released.
The other aspect of the crime prevention pilot is license plate readers that would inform police when they encounter a reported stolen vehicle. The technology is already used by Seattle parking enforcement officers.
