Kansas City ShotSpotter Sparks More Outcry

Here's a bit more noise against this surveillance tech disguised as a crime-fighting tool . . . TKC perspective . . . With the cash their spending . . . They could put a couple of more cops on the street.

Take a listen . . .

"Kansas City has used ShotSpotter since 2012, a period marked by record levels of homicides. The Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners last year approved spending $200,000 to extend a contract for the service through September.

"Leaders say it can help save gunshot victims’ lives by enabling emergency responders to get to the scene of a shooting more quickly. As a result, they add, investigators can more quickly recover ballistic and bullet casing evidence used to solve crimes.

"But over the past decade, cities around the country such as Atlanta; Charlotte, North Carolina; New Orleans; and San Antonio, Texas, have decided to discontinue their use of ShotSpotter. Those decisions coincided with a growing body of research showing that ShotSpotter has not succeeded in reducing gun violence, has slowed police response times to emergency calls, and often did not lead to evidence recovery."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Some Cities Rethinking Technology that Listens for Gunshots

Some cities are cutting ties with the company behind ShotSpotter, a technology that tracks the sound of gunshots. Kansas City has used ShotSpotter since 2012.