Police officers cannot be everywhere, but in Prince George’s County new technology will help them keep an eye ? and ear ? out for shootings.
County Police Chief Melvin High plans for his agency to acquire by June equipment that picks up the sound of gunshots and within seconds tells police where the shots were fired from.
“This will let us know about an incident immediately,” High said. “We will not have to rely on citizens to alert us.”
The system, known as ShotSpotter, uses sophisticated sensors to pick up the sound of a gunshot and determine where the shot came from. It then quickly sends the information to police.
ShotSpotter would the be the latest in the new technology the department is using, such as a computer program that maps where crimes occur so police can spot trends and deploy more officers to hot spots.
“Our expectation is that this will help us,” High said.
“But it is a relatively new technology that has been tried in other places and we will have to see what happens.”
Jeff Rowland, a senior vice president for ShotSpotter, said 16 jurisdictions are using the system.
“Normally if a gunshot is called in ? and we have numbers showing only about 50 percent of gunshot incidents are reported ? the cops do not always know the exact location,” Rowland said. “We give information within seconds to the police department so they can accurately and tactically deploy.”
The system?s sensors can ignore other sounds, Rowland said, even those that sound similar.
“Even if there is construction in an area, it will filter out the clanks of the construction work,” he said.
The Metropolitan Police Department in D.C. began using the technology recently and credit the technology with their quick capture of a suspect in the Oct. 16 shooting on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.
Police responded shortly after receiving the ShotSpotter, and found the body of Jose Villatoro, who had been shot in the back. They quickly located a suspect, Lankward Harrington, who has been charged with first-degree murder.
