Opinion: The NYPD’s ShotSpotter Scam

“Lack of transparency alone should have brought a rejection of the NYPD’s contract renewal with ShotSpotter. By renewing, NYPD agreed to open our pocketbooks once again with little in return, including the right to know the dangers we are truly propelling.”

nypd car

Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office

An NYPD vehicle in Manhattan on a snowy day in 2018.

When it comes to the trade-off of privacy for security, we might all barter differently. But nobody would pay a hefty fee to have their rights and safety simultaneously compromised. And no one would enter such an agreement blindly.

On Tuesday, ShotSpotter’s parent company, SoundThinking, announced that the NYPD extended its contract with ShotSpotter in a $21.8 million deal. ShotSpotter is a “gunshot detection” technology, designed to identify and locate gunfire in real-time using a network of acoustic sensors.

Ideally, the sound of a gunshot is accurately identified, and law enforcement are quickly notified on where the gunshot occurred. This mere premise of audibly monitoring entire communities raises red flags. Unfortunately, the actual operation and application of this technology has created an even grimmer reality than imagined.