Though the City of Boston took more than a year and a half to implement a gun-shot detection system in crime-ridden sections of the city, the payoffs of the $1.5 million ShotSpotter program, still in a testing phase, have been almost instantaneous. The quick returns on this innovative and effective system are encouraging for a city that has seen 230 non-fatal shootings and 40 homicides involving guns, of 53 total homicides, as of Oct. 8.
Boston Police Department officers fired blank test shots in different parts of the 6.2-mile swath covered by the system last week, according to an Oct. 4 Boston Globe article. Since then, one arrest was made for unlawful possession of a weapon and ammunition, and an illegal weapon was seized by police Oct. 7 in Mattapan. Police were able to analyze ballistics evidence following an Oct. 5 shooting that resulted in the death of 13-year-old Steven Odom. ShotSpotter recognized the gunshots that killed the Dorchester teen before 9-1-1 calls were received by police, according to the Boston Police Department News website.
Delayed by City Hall bickering and problems negotiating with California-based SpotShotter, Inc., the system met hesitation and unreasonable resistance, according to a June 23 Globe article. Had Mayor Thomas Menino not pushed for emergency funding in January, the system may not have made it onto the streets at all.
Gun violence in Boston is disconcertingly high, and an established attitude against reporting tips about violent crime lingers in parts of the city. In 2006, 54 of 75 total homicides were carried out with a firearm. Police responded to 323 additional, non-fatal shootings last year. The statistics for gun-related homicides in 2006 and 2007 are identical so far, with 40 by Oct. 8 in both years.
While the city and police department have tried to create channels for communication between citizens in violence-prone neighborhoods and law enforcement with an anonymous tip line to which people may send text messages and also an increased police presence, a tight-lipped legacy remains in certain communities. Within the last decade, skepticism about police presence and reporting crime was prevalent in Boston, perhaps culminating with a public war of words between city officials, including Menino, and shops selling “Stop Snitchin'” T-shirts — the slogan calls on people to stop reporting crime to police.
In communities where a culture has allowed gunshots to go unreported for too long, the advantages of an anonymous technological system are overwhelmingly promising. When neighbors refuse to talk and citizens do not report shots, either because of gang intimidation or suspicions about police, the impersonal and spot-on shot-detection system is more effective than a community-awareness campaign.
Beating bureaucracy and the budget, city officials have made a solid investment in safety with the ShotSpotter. With faster response times and the possible detection of illegal shots before violent crimes occur, the city’s streets might finally become a little safer.
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