“Today, we are rolling out cutting edge technology to make the city safer, to make our neighborhoods safer, to keep our officers safer,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. During the pilot program, ShotSpotter sensors are being placed in seven precincts in the Bronx and 10 in Brooklyn, a total area of 15 square miles where many shots were registered.
This advanced security system is already in use in cities including Washington, Boston, Oakland, San Francisco and Minneapolis, as well as smaller cities like East Chicago, Ind. “On average, 75 percent of shots fired called in by ShotSpotter are never called into 911,”Mr. Bratton revealed. The two-year pilot program in New York will cost $1.5 million annually. Both, the mayor and the police commissioner expressed hope that the use of this technology as the latest move to modernize the nation’s largest police force will increase confidence between the police and the communities.
