WKRC: ‘ShotSpotter’ under increased scrutiny as Cincinnati weighs $1 million annual renewal cost 

City data showed that police have received 1,751 ShotSpotter alerts so far in 2024, on track to match last year’s nearly 2,900 gunfire detections. Critics argue that the technology is flawed. 

 “It’s deeply inaccurate, it’s discriminatory, and it’s harmful to the communities that it’s supposedly protecting,” said John Davisson of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. 

He added that ShotSpotter detectors are primarily deployed in Black and Brown neighborhoods, which he says are already overpoliced. 

 “The reason why ShotSpotter is deployed in lower-income neighborhoods is because that’s where the gunfire occurs,” Local 12 asked Davisson. 

 “So, that logic might carry a little more weight if ShotSpotter were shown to have any effect on rates of crime, but it’s not,” Davisson said. 

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