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Detroit City Council renews ShotSpotter funding, delays expansion vote

By and Jack Nissen
Published  September 27, 2022 7:32am EDT
Crime and Public Safety
FOX 2 Detroit

Detroit community activist supports ShotSpotter expansion, City Council vote expected to be toss up

Now, a popular community activist, Rev. Charles Williams, says the expansion of ShotSpotter would make for a safer city.

DETROIT (FOX 2) - It was a presentation by Detroit Police Chief James White that convinced a community activist from the city that ShotSpotter can help cut down on violence in the city.

"Anything that turns down violence just one tick in this city, we gotta take advantage of it," said Rev. Charles Williams, who works at the national action network in Historic King Solomon Baptist Church. 

"What influenced me was if it makes one young man say ‘If I shoot this bullet, if I shoot this gun, there suddenly could be police swarming around here,’ you can't buy that. That's the peace of mind you go live out to the suburbs for," he said. 

But Eric Williams, who works at the Detroit Justice Center thinks the $8.5 million price tag for expanding the gun shot detection technology would allocate money to the wrong solution while also starving proven methods of funding to make them more efficient.

"Every penny that we spend on technology that doesn't move the needle is a penny that isn't being spent to address the root causes of crime," he said.

The Detroit City Council voted 6-3 to renew the city's ShotSpotter contract for $1.5 million. The vote approved continuing the service. The city council also tabled the expansion of the technology - another $7 million - to other parts around the city.

The technology has already been deployed in District 2 Member Angela Whitfield-Calloway's region. Her office says it has only contributed to 21 arrests from more than 1,300 police runs between March 2021 and July 2022. "I cannot support spending $8 million on in my opinion, failed technology," said Calloway.

James White said that vantage point was the wrong perspective when considering the effectiveness of the technology.

"If you use arrests as your only measurement for success of ShotSpotter, you're missing the point," White said. "We have a 42% reduction in violent crimes in our two-most violent precincts. We're reporting 16.9% reduction in violent crimes citywide - one of the few major cities that's doing that."

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He also explained how one incident over the weekend that happened after a ShotSpotter alert arrived led to a man's arrest, a victim's medical attention, and the apprehension of fentanyl. No 911 call ever came in for the incident.