What was that? — City eyeballing gunshot detection tech

The Mobile City Council is set to consider spending up to $640,000 of federal American Rescue Plan funds on gunshot detection technology. 

The contract between the city and ShotSpotter for “subscription” and “consulting services” was placed on the council’s agenda for its regular meeting on Tuesday by Mayor Sandy Stimpson. The contract, which is a first read and will more than likely be held over per council rules, is part of a total of $3.5 million portion of the federal money Stimpson has previously vowed to spend on gun violence technology.

ShotSpotter guarantees that 90 percent of all outdoor, non-suppressed gunshots will be detected by the technology and the location of the shots will be sent to either dispatch or an individual Mobile police officer’s mobile, or other device within one minute, according to the contract. 

“ShotSpotter will detect and accurately locate to within 25 meters of the actual gunshot location 90 percent of unsuppressed, outdoor gunshots fired inside the contracted coverage area using standard, commercially available rounds greater than .25 caliber,” the contract reads. “The ShotSpotter real-time Incident Review Center (IRC) will review at least 90 percent of all gunfire incidents within 60 seconds.” 

The review, in most cases, will result in three outcomes: “high confidence incident is gunfire,” “uncertain if incident is gunfire or not,” or “low confidence incident is gunfire,” according to the contract. 

The system will present the gunshot as a dot on a map with latitude and longitude coordinates, as well as provide a mailing address for a building closest to the possible gunshot, according to the contract. ShotSpotter data services will be available 99.9 percent of the time through an online portal. The only exception is when it’s down for maintenance, according to the contract. 

The initial term of the subscription is three years and may be renewed one year at a time, unless a longer term is agreed upon by both parties. The contract is not to exceed $640,000.