Listening in - another story from 1984

yeah... great... lovely... it's being presented as a useful new police tool, something to help insure our safety... why, then, does it give me the crssps...?

The crack of gunshots can be heard nearly every night in some of [D.C.'s] deadliest neighborhoods -- and no longer just by the people within shooting range.

The sounds are being picked up by the police department's newest tool: ShotSpotter, a network of noise sensors that identifies and pinpoints gunfire. Over the past few weeks, the technology has guided police to three homicides in Southeast Washington, and in one case officers got there rapidly enough to make an arrest.

ShotSpotter complements 48 surveillance cameras installed in many city neighborhoods. But unlike the cameras, which are checked after the fact, ShotSpotter gets word to police as soon as bullets start flying -- in many cases before anyone has a chance to call 911. Over the past two months, the sensors, roughly the size of coffee cans, have been hidden atop buildings in many sections of Southeast Washington.

now, they can watch and listen in too...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet