LR keeps shot-spot system
Police’s contract OK’d for renewal
Members of the Little Rock Board of Directors on Tuesday approved a resolution authorizing the renewal of a contract with ShotSpotter Inc., a California company that offers a gunshot-detection system intended to allow police to zero in on gunfire soon after bullets are fired.
The Police Department currently relies on ShotSpotter’s audio technology and reporting system to identify the approximate site of shots, allowing officers to respond quickly to the scene.
Sensors placed within ShotSpotter’s coverage area pick up the sound of possible gunshots and transmit the information to the company’s so-called Incident Review Center. The information is then provided to police, according to ShotSpotter’s website.
The city initially authorized a two-year agreement with ShotSpotter in the summer of 2018.
The resolution approved Tuesday gives the city manager the authority to amend the contract and extend use of the system for another two years, through mid-December 2022, at a cost of $287,393.
Under the contract extension, the area covered by ShotSpotter’s system will remain the same at 2 square miles.
Year-one funding for the ShotSpotter contract reportedly will come from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Technology Innovation for Public Safety grant program, according to the resolution.
Earlier this month, City Manager Bruce Moore told
the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that grant funding will cover both years of the extended two-year contract. However, at the time, Moore wrote that expanding the coverage area will require acquiring additional funding.
A police official who attended Tuesday’s meeting declined to offer specifics on the additional ways the Police Department uses the system when asked by City Director Ken Richardson, who represents Ward 2, about what letter grade he would give ShotSpotter, but acknowledged that he would give the system “a strong grade.”
At one point during the meeting, City Director B.J. Wyrick of Ward 7 referred to a recent report from Little Rock Fox affiliate KLRT. Citing police records, the television station investigated the efficacy of the ShotSpotter system in Little Rock.
Based on those records, KLRT reported that in the majority of the 2,026 suspected shootings picked up by ShotSpotter devices since the first day of the system’s use, Dec. 19, 2018, officers never filed a report.
Additionally, the television station reported that a suspect was arrested at the scene only eight times after a ShotSpotter notification.