Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell is hoping this will be the year city council approves his proposal to bring a gunfire detection system to Seattle.
“Implementing technology tools to bolster policing capabilities is essential to address ongoing gun violence, vehicle theft, human trafficking, and persistent felony crime at specific places, including within our most victimized communities,” a briefing memo from the Mayor’s office said.The mayor’s 2024 budget proposal would take $1,775,000 in unspent police salaries to implement gunfire detection, closed-circuit TV, and automated license plate readers.
“Research shows that we notify them minutes faster and hundreds of feet closer to where the gunfire actually occurred than the average 911 call,” said Tom Chittum, the Senior Vice President of Forensic Services at SoundThinking.“In a single year in Oakland, California, ShotSpotter alerted police to more than 100 gunshot victims where there was no 911 call,” he said. “We allow police to respond to gunfire because we can tell them the what, the when, and the were.
“There is no question that ShotSpotter is surveillance technology, and it poses significant risk of privacy violations,” a letter to the Seattle City Council from a coalition of opponents said. Violent crime data has skyrocketed in Seattle, according to city crime data. In 2013, Seattle recorded 170 gun violence events between Jan. 1, and Aug. 31. In 2022, that number increased to 524 and in 2023 it was 491.Read the full statement from the Mayor’s Office:
CCTV cameras, when coupled with other crime prevention measures such as improved lighting, trimming of overgrown vegetation, community awareness, and police patrols, can be an important tool to help deter criminal behavior at specific places where crime is concentrated.
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