Privacy

Tell Oakland: End Contract with Dangerous ShotSpotter Tech

The Public Safety Committee of Oakland’s City Council will meet on October 8, 2024 to decide whether to renew its contract for ShotSpotter technology. This acoustic gunshot technology is flawed and highly controversial. It erroneously deploys armed officers expecting gunfire and thereby endangers innocent people. It listens in on marginalized neighborhoods that already receive the lion’s share of police harassment and surveillance.

ShotSpotter has received a tremendous amount of well-deserved bad press. The Mayor of Chicago recently called the technology “walkie-talkies on a pole,” because of their limited utility to a city that has been trying to find solutions to gun violence. A number of cities have let their contracts expire. The U.S. Department of Justice has been urged to investigate why this technology is put up predominantly in Black neighborhoods, even in places that have little history of gun violence. And earlier this year, police in Chicago alerted by ShotSpotter responded to what they believed might be gun violence–only to open fire on a child playing with fireworks.

Oakland has a chance to act now to cut ties with this dangerous technology. It does not address the root causes of gun violence, but instead adds another layer of surveillance on minority communities, which get the majority of (possibly incorrect) alerts. Tell the City Council now: end Oakland’s relationship with ShotSpotter!

Learn More

Acoustic gunshot detection is a system designed to detect, record, and locate the sound of gunfire and then alert law enforcement. The equipment usually takes the form of sensitive microphones and sensors, most of which must always be listening for the sound of gunshots. They are often accompanied by cameras. They are usually mounted on street lights or other elevated structures, though some are mobile and others operate indoors.

Police and the companies that sell acoustic gunshot detection systems claim that this technology informs police of the location of shots fired, sometimes more quickly and accurately than relying on people to call the police. However, reports have questioned the accuracy of acoustic gunshot detection, including not registering some actual gunshots, while also erroneously registering loud noises like fireworks as gunshots. This puts people at risk, by sending police expecting gunfire to a location where there is no gunfire but there are innocent people out in public.

Moreover, gunshot detection systems can record human voices–and police have tried to use these recordings as evidence in court.

Take action

Send this email:

As an Oakland resident, I write to endorse the Privacy Advisory Commission’s recommendation that you not renew Oakland’s contract with SoundThinking, the proprietor of the product ShotSpotter.

This technology will not address the root causes of gun violence in Oakland. Instead, it will endanger innocent people: this flawed technology generates false alerts of gunfire and thereby deploys armed police into minority neighborhoods. This year in Chicago, a child playing with fireworks in his backyard was shot at by police when they responded to a ShotSpotter alert and were expecting gunfire. We cannot allow that to happen in Oakland.

Given the great expense associated with this technology, many cities have already let their contracts expire and now have more resources to invest in real solutions. Oakland should join them. After all, in 2014, OPD  wanted to scrap the ShotSpotter contract. In regards to this current expiration, the OPD has not provided any documentation citing the technology’s effectiveness.

The OPD has admitted that ShotSpotter alerts yield a police report only 20% of the time–meaning a vast majority of alerts are just noise police must sift through.

Gun violence is a serious issue. We should not be wasting time and resources by trying to address it with dubious technology that might endanger more people than it saves. So we should end Oakland’s relationship with this irresponsible technology.

Thank you,

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To: rkaplan@oaklandca.gov, cfife@oaklandca.gov, janani@jananiforoakland.com, treid@oaklandca.gov Subject: Oakland Should NOT Renew its ShotSpotter Contract As an Oakland resident, I write to endorse the Privacy Advisory Commission’s recommendation that you not renew Oakland’s contract with SoundThinking, the proprietor of the product ShotSpotter. This technology will not address the root causes of gun violence in Oakland. Instead, it will endanger innocent people: this flawed technology generates false alerts of gunfire and thereby deploys armed police into minority neighborhoods. This year in Chicago, a child playing with fireworks in his backyard was shot at by police when they responded to a ShotSpotter alert and were expecting gunfire. We cannot allow that to happen in Oakland. Given the great expense associated with this technology, many cities have already let their contracts expire and now have more resources to invest in real solutions. Oakland should join them. After all, in 2014, OPD wanted to scrap the ShotSpotter contract. In regards to this current expiration, the OPD has not provided any documentation citing the technology’s effectiveness. The OPD has admitted that ShotSpotter alerts yield a police report only 20% of the time–meaning a vast majority of alerts are just noise police must sift through. Gun violence is a serious issue. We should not be wasting time and resources by trying to address it with dubious technology that might endanger more people than it saves. So we should end Oakland’s relationship with this irresponsible technology. Thank you,

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