Oakland officials consider future of police department's ShotSpotter program
On Tuesday evening, Oakland's Public Safety Committee met to consider whether to renew the contract for the city's 20-year-old ShotSpotter program.
Police said it's a valuable tool for officer and public safety. Others say, in a time of massive budget deficits, it isn't worth the cost.
Facing a $170 million deficit, Oakland is looking wherever it can to trim costs and that's putting the police department's ShotSpotter program in the crosshairs.
The technology uses microphones mounted on poles and buildings in high-crime areas to detect the sound of gunfire. The noise is then triangulated to give a location within a couple hundred feet.
Huy Nguyen, the president of the Oakland Police Officers Association, said that gives officers an accurate idea of where to look, increasing safety and helping identify the location of possible victims.
"When I used to work the street, sometimes there's days that we don't find a body until the following morning," Nguyen told CBS News Bay Area. "Because we go out there at nighttime, a gunshot victim's been shot, and we can't seem to locate him because we don't have the exact location where it came from."
But others are questioning how effective the program really is.
Members of Oakland's Privacy Advisory Commission have been critical of ShotSpotter. They've studied numbers from around the country and Chair Brian Hofer said they are recommending that the program not be renewed.
"Every single independent statistical evaluation in the country, covering 75 jurisdictions and 25 years' worth of data, says that ShotSpotter does not meet its claims," said Hofer. "It's not accurate. It's not reducing gun violence. It doesn't lead to arrests. It's not helping us render first aid faster. It isn't effective."
Other cities are looking to abandon ShotSpotter, as well, including Chicago, Houston and Seattle.
In Oakland, the program costs more than $840,000 per year but the contract expired in June.
So, why might the City Council consider renewing it? George Galvis, founder of Communities United For Restorative Youth Justice, thinks he knows.
"Our elected officials, I think, are concerned about being perceived as being 'soft on crime' or not supporting public safety," he said. "And so, that means they're willing to actually get behind strategies that they know are actually ineffective."
The question isn't whether it works, but whether it's cost effective. Councilmember Noel Gallo said it's because of the police department's limited manpower that they must turn to technology.
"Through technology we can clearly identify where the action is--the gun action, the shootings," said Gallo. "The bottom line is we need to provide the assistance to our police department considering the fact that we're understaffed."
The company that makes and monitors ShotSpotter, Fremont-based SoundThinking, wrote in a letter to the city that they are continuing to supply the service without a contract because they've been a "valued partner of Oakland since 2006."
The new contract being considered would cost $2.5 million for three years' service.
The Public Safety Committee's recommendation about whether or not to renew the contract will be sent to the full council for a final decision at a later date.