Several US cities have recently ditched the police surveillance tool ShotSpotter that’s used to detect gunfire, and Oakland could become the latest, as critics say it bogs police down with false-positive notifications.  

The gunfire detection system known as ShotSpotter is used by many police departments nationwide, including the San Francisco PD, and it has certainly helped police and first responders to arrive on scene immediately after some shootings, allowing victims to get medical attention more quickly.

But ShotSpotter is also very controversial, as some analysis shows that the technology slows 911 call responses because it distracts police with “false positive” reports where there had not been any real gunfire. And the Chronicle points out that Seattle and Chicago have recently canceled their ShotSpotter contracts for that reason.

Now the City of Oakland may join them. KTVU reports that the Oakland City Council's Public Safety Committee will debate today on whether to renew ShotSpotter’s contract with the Oakland Police Department.  The contract actually already expired on June 30, though the system is still in use, and the Oakland PD has been using ShotSpotter since 2006.

KTVU only got comment from one city councilmember, who was all for renewing the ShotSpotter contract.

"It's no secret that we have problems with our 911 system that we are working actively to resolve," Councilmember Kevin Jenkins told that station. "Sometimes, people call 911 and are left on hold. But when ShotSpotter is activated, the police know exactly where to go and get quick paramedic responses."

Notably, though, Jenkins is not a member of the Public Safety Committee that will be making this recommendation. But he told KTVU, "The price of a life is way more than whatever this contract is. If we save one life, the contract is worth it."

The Chronicle notes ShotSpotter data claiming that the tool has saved 400 lives in Oakland between 2020 and 2023. But that information comes from ShotSpotter’s parent company SoundThinking, who have a multi-million dollar contract on the table here. The Oakland PD could not corroborate those numbers.

And critics say this leaves out how many false positives, or incidents that were not gunfire, but were picked up as such by ShotSpotter and sent police on wild goose chases.

"Chicago, Seattle, and numerous major cities have already canceled this program because it's been proven ineffective,"  Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice executive director George Galvis told KTVU. "Police will then rush into a neighborhood, into a community and zero in on a neighborhood, hyper vigilant. We've already seen what happens in traffic stops where too many times, we've seen black and brown motorists who've been murdered at routine traffic stops."

Still, ShotSpotter is a fairly affordable tool, with Oakland looking at a $2.5 million price tag for a three-year renewal of ShotSpotter.

And the Oakland PD seems to feel the tool is effective enough, according to a letter from OPD Chief Chief Floyd Mitchell included in committee materials for Tuesday’s vote.

“In 2023, ShotSpotter alerted OPD to 8,318 unique gunshot incidents – 8,318 (99%) were not called in by the community and OPD would not have known about them nor have been able to respond in a timely fashion,” Mitchell wrote. “In many cases, ShotSpotter has allowed for the rapid response to shooting scenes where injured victims are able to receive immediate and potentially lifesaving medical aid.”

The Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee meeting is at 6 pm Tuesday night. The committee will only be making a recommendation, not a final decision. The full Oakland City Council will have the final say on the contract renewal in the weeks to come.

Related: SFPD Will Place Its New Surveillance Cameras at 24th and Mission, 19th and Mission Streets [SFist]

Image: SoundThinking