Monday Morning Bullpen: ShotSpotter’s First Time

The city’s ShotSpotter gunfire detection system reported gunshots for the first time since it was deployed last week.

For those late to the show, ShotSpotter uses sensors to notify police when shots have been fired in certain areas across the city.

On Friday, the system did just that when it notified police of — in this case — a single gunshot. Police were on the scene in about a minute, but did not find any evidence of the shooting (such as a bullet casing or bullet strike or worse, a victim).

Critics of course will point to this event and claim the system does not work.

I disagree, I consider this a “successful response.”

The point is not that police found no evidence of gunfire. The point here is the response time. A report of gunfire to the closest police in the area, resulted in law enforcement reaching the scene in a minute.

According to the ShotSpotter website, that’s what the system is designed to do, get police to the scene quick enough to aid victims or catch the bad guys.

According to a city staff report released in October, it’s hard to determine where gunshots originate from because of how sound waves travel, which results in officers responding to an inaccurate location.

The response delay can sometimes be considerable. If a person was struck by gunfire, time is of the essence and any delay could be a matter of life and death,” the report states.

According to the ShotSpotter website, the system improves police response time to gunshots from an average of 4.5 minutes to … wait for it.

60 seconds.

The exact amount of time it took Pasadena Police Department to reach the scene on Friday.

Unfortunately the system will be tested under more extreme conditions at some point.

Pasadena has far too many shootings.

The Pasadena Police Department has responded to more than 300 calls for service from people reporting hearing shots being fired, and an additional 400 incidents of gun-related crimes over the past two years.

During the same period, nearly 40 people have been shot.

Leaders across the state have been struggling to resolve the problem, which is a pandemic in its own right.

Locally, and police continue to recover firearms, many of them ghost guns, during traffic stops.

The city is taking steps to keep people safe, including security cameras in several parks. All good moves. Yes, we can question the purpose of technology and have conversations about the right to privacy, which no one has in a park.

But the fundamental right to be safe, is paramount.

Last week, county district attorney George Gascon called on credit card companies to halt any payments for online purchases of the mostly untraceable firearms.

Of course that move does not address the root of the issue which leads to gun violence in the first place, whateever that is.

But we need the right tools as we move forward and locally SpotSpotter is just one item in the toolbox.

It was the right move to get it.