Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell keeps looking to technology in a bid to curb crime and increase safety.
Harrell released his 2024 budget proposal Tuesday that includes mid-biennium adjustments to the 2023-24 budget passed last year. The City uses two-year budget cycles and in odd years, such as 2023, it makes minor changes.
Among Harrell’s proposals include a $1.8 million investment to fund testing of new “advanced safety technologies.”
From the city’s budget adjustments summary:
“With record-low numbers of police officers in 2023, the City must use technological support to boost the effectiveness of public safety strategies. Mayor Harrell is reinvesting $1.8 million of salary savings in the SPD into a new crime prevention pilot to implement automatic license plate readers, CCTV cameras, and acoustic gunshot locator systems to deter criminal behavior and hold offenders accountable.”
In a press conference Tuesday, Harrell cited rising homicides in Seattle and an increase in stolen vehicles.
“We know we can’t be complacent,” he said.
Harrell, previously a Seattle City Councilmember, has spent years trying to get the city to test gunshot detection technology designed to help police track and respond to locations where gunshots are fired.
Harrell last year proposed $1 million for the gunfire tech in the existing budget but the City Council axed the funding last year.
The technology works via the installation of microphones 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.
GeekWire previously reported on a study by the MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University; a review of data by Chicago’s inspector general; and a lengthy 2021 investigation by The Associated Press — all of which called into question the effectiveness of ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection product used by more than 250 customers and sold by publicly traded company Sound Thinking.
Police reform group Campaign Zero launched an effort last year to get cities to “cancel Shotspotter,” criticizing its ability to accurately detect loud noises, and saying it increases high-intensity interactions between police and civilians.
The city of Dayton, Ohio, recently stopped using ShotSpotter, saying it was “challenging” to prove its effectiveness, and Atlanta did not renew its contract last year.
But other cities in Ohio such as Columbus and Cleveland are expanding their use of ShotSpotter. So is Newark and Detroit.
A spokesperson for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office told CBS last week that ShotSpotter “takes our response to a whole new level.”
This week in Houston, ShotSpotter tech reportedly helped lead police to a woman who was found shot to death.
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.”
The proposed pilot program 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.
The other aspect of the pilot program would be license plate readers that would inform police when they encounter a reported stolen vehicle. The technology is already used by Seattle parking enforcement officers.
The pilot program will require compliance with the city’s surveillance ordinance and approval by the council.
“These technologies will allow us to police more efficiently given low staffing levels and would be integrated into a more effective real time crime center — applying an evidence-based approach to reducing crime,” a spokesperson for the mayor said in a statement to GeekWire. “These technologies are commonly used across the country and it’s important that Seattle keep pace in allowing technology to assist in advancing public safety. As long as the City is prohibited from setting its own gun laws because of state preemption, Mayor Harrell will continue to pursue innovative approaches to reduce gun violence, from community-based solutions to new technology.”
