Neighborhood set to pilot gunshot detection system

Array of cameras and microphones will alert police to shots fired in Cadillac Winchester neighborhood

SAN JOSE >> Police plan to testrun gunshot detection sensors in the Cadillac Winchester neighborhood in the coming weeks, joining an array of Bay Area cities that employ the technology to supplement their response to and tracking of shootings, authorities announced Wednesday.

San Jose police have agreed to a no-cost, six-month pilot of V5 Systems’ On Sound gunshot detection system, with the aim of providing more real-time notification to officers and close the gap between when gunfire occurs and when it is reported. The neighborhood sits north of downtown Campbell.

Similar technology has been employed for several years in the region, including in Oakland, Richmond, East Palo Alto, Redwood City and San Francisco. San Jose State University also has installed gunshot detection on campus.

The city will host online community meetings via Zoom to explain the system from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. March 1718. The March 17 meeting can be joined at sanjoseca.zoom. us/J/91819095674, and for March 18, go to sanjoseca.zoom. us/J/91851330772.

As to why the Cadillac Winchester neighborhood was selected for the pilot, a police news release stated that it “has historically been impacted by gun violence.”

According to police report data, the Cadillac Winchester neighborhood was the subject of 64 “shots fired” calls in the 2020 calendar year. Of those, one was a homicide, two involved assault with a deadly weapon cases, six showed evidence of someone shooting at a home or car, four yielded suspicious circumstances reports and seven were related to fireworks or firecrackers.

But the vast majority of those calls, 44, closed solely as “shots fired” reports, with just four involving recoverable evidence of a shooting like bullet casings. The rest were deemed to be unfounded or were canceled while officers were on the way or by

the time they arrived.

SJPD spokesperson Officer Steven Aponte said one of the goals of the pilot will be to test the system’s proficiency in differentiating gunshots from other loud noises that are often reported as gunshots, such as fireworks and car backfires or tire blowouts.

There is not yet a specific date for when the system will go online. Aponte said community and resident feedback will factor into the extent of how the devices are used, and on whether they test out gunshot detection in other areas of the city.

Vice Mayor Chappie Jones, whose City Council district encompasses Cadillac Winchester, said his office has been working with police for over a year to explore technology to help track shootings in the area after multiple homicides in and around the neighborhood over the past few years.

“Sometimes these incidents would take place and they would not be reported,” Jones said. “We wanted to first identify when a gunshot takes place and secondarily, identify the license plate and any other descriptions of the suspect that we could capture from the cameras.”

The V5 recording devices each will be mounted to power poles and consist of a video camera, microphones and an automated license plate reader. When a potential gunshot is detected, the system will send an alert to police dispatchers, who then would coordinate the officer response.

Carlos Cornejo, co-vice president of the Cadillac Winchester Neighborhood Association, said he wants to learn more about how the system will work but is generally receptive of it both as an aid to police and a crime deterrent. He also echoed Jones in calling out the need to increase residents’ comfort with alerting police about shootings.

“People sometimes have the mindset that someone else will call, and the other person thinks the same thing, and it doesn’t get called in,” he said. “With the shootings we’ve had over the past two years, I think this will help the community be more comfortable, knowing police have this extra tool. I just hope it doesn’t deter them from calling; they still should call.”

Jones detailed intentions about launching the pilot program last fall, but it took several more months to reach fruition. He said his office is conducting “extensive community engagement” to address potential privacy and surveillance concerns, given that at its core, it’s still a 24-hour surveillance system monitored by police.

Aponte said the department has outlined a policy dictating that the cameras on the devices will be pointed at street intersections and sidewalks, and places where there are no legal privacy expectations. That policy also includes a one-year limit for recording retention in line with city requirements and restricts access to the data to SJPD.

Still, privacy advocacy organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation long have expressed concern about the potential for the technology to unlawfully capture private conversations between people who arguably have a reasonable expectation of privacy if say, they’re talking quietly on an empty street. EFF also points out that the tendency of gunshot detection systems being installed in high-crime areas could, if unchecked, contribute to excessive scrutiny of neighborhoods often populated by people of color.

Aponte said that information provided by the devices could produce swifter and more proportional responses and ideally could facilitate faster emergency response times by fire and medical personnel to tend to an injured person. But he also emphasized the detection devices are not meant to replace officer response, traffic enforcement or the need for witnesses who have more context and information about a shooting.

“We still want people to call,” he said. “If it’s out of range, we need witnesses.”