The Greenwood City Council was given an introduction to the “ShotSpotter” gunfire alert system Tuesday.
The system was developed by SST Inc. of Newark, California.
Ron Teachman, director of the Midwest region of SST, explained the system, which uses sensors and sound waves to precisely pinpoint where a gun has been fired and alerts officers to the scene.
Tuesday’s meeting was for information only. If the council were to approve ShotSpotter, Greenwood would be the first city in the state to employ it.
Before coming to work for SST, Teachman served as chief of police of South Bend, Indiana, and prior to that New Bedford, Massachusetts. Teachman said he was a client of ShotSpotter in those cities.
“Murders are a function of marksmanship and emergency medical services,” he told the council.
Although there have been significant improvements in trauma care, “they have not reduced the number of persons shot, and most importantly, they have not reduced the number of shots being fired in neighborhoods,” Teachman said.
“We understand that in cities like Greenwood, it is just a handful of shooters that are terrorizing your neighborhoods. It is a much more manageable problem than some people believe it is,” he said.
The technology that SST employs is expensive, around $225,000 for the initial purchase — which would cover a 3-square-mile area — and up to $100,000 for contract services for the first year. Once the system is in place, the contract costs go down from year to year.
Teachman said criminologist David Kennedy of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice reported that one-half of 1 percent of a city’s population is involved in group or gang activity “and with that one-half percent, it is just a handful of trigger pullers — of people actually doing the shootings. We need to focus on those individuals to make our cities safer,” he said.
Teachman said 911 is not adequate for the job: “People call 911 less than 20 percent of the time that shots are being fired.”
When police don’t respond to 911 calls, the public loses confidence and the gulf between the police and the communities widens, he said.
Sending officers into an area where gunfire is occurring is “like walking through a minefield blindfolded,” Teachman said.
ShotSpotter can distinguish gunfire from other noises such as backfiring cars, jackhammers and fireworks. Teachman said it can tell officers within seconds “where the threat is, the number of rounds fired, how many shooters there are and precisely where the shooter is located.”
“It’s under a minute contractually, typically between 20 and 30 seconds,” Teachman said.
The company determines the coverage that is necessary.
“We establish a minimum 3-square-mile contiguous footprint. We put sensors on tops of buildings,” Teachman said.
The company handles all the details for placing sensors on privately owned buildings. He said typically 18 to 20 units are used per square mile.
City Council President Ronnie Stevenson expressed some reservations about the cost of the ShotSpotter system. Ward 6’s David Jordan indicated he supports moving ahead with the technology.
Mayor Carolyn McAdams said she’s fielded several calls about ShotSpotter and its price tag.
“They think it is only for a big city. It is not just used in big cities,” she said.
Teachman said Amityville, New York, a city of about 6,000 residents employs ShotSpotter.
“The thing about being a small city, the advantage that I see, we’ll get greater coverage out of our 3-square-mile radius.
“I don’t see how you can put a price tag on safety. Safety is huge in any city. If we can provide a safe environment for our community, for our citizens that live here and for our businesses that have invested for many, many years to stay here, it will be worth it,” McAdams said.
In other action, the council approved:
• The city entering into a $227,750 contract with Delta Blue Pools for repairs to the Eddie “Sonny” Brown Municipal Pool.
• An amended conditional use permit in a C-1 Neighborhood Commercial District to locate a lounge at 605 Broad St. Conditions placed on the lounge include: limiting its opening time to 2 p.m.; having no outside signage promoting alcohol or tobacco; the installation of outside security cameras; establishing a “no loitering” policy; and providing off-road access to paved parking.
• Accepting a $75,173.50 Department of Public Safety grant to help provide for police officer overtime for DUI enforcement.
• Accepting a $23,053.14 Mississippi Office of Highway Safety Federal Police Traffic Grant.
• Contact Bob Darden at 581-7239 or bdarden@gwcommonwealth.com.
