After the daylight shooting on Memorial Drive, the Cambridge City Council’s move to get rid of a gunshot detection system has raised concerns among top public safety officials.
The CEO of Sound Thinking, which is best known for providing Shot Spotter, says he’s open to sensible discussions with communities that don’t agree with using the acoustic gunshot detector. But he thinks many of the worries in Cambridge are actually “mischaracterizations” of how the system works.
Council members want the city manager to team up with Cambridge Police to stop using Shot Spotter – including turning off and physically removing the devices within 90 days. They’re also asking officials to make sure no more data is collected by it.
This comes from a resolution passed last Monday, exactly one week after chaos erupted on Memorial Drive when Tyler Brown, a convicted felon, allegedly fired over 60 shots around 1 p. m. on that busy street.
The council’s resolution reads, “Shot Spotter has never been independently scientifically validated to be an accurate and reliable source of information and nationally,” and goes on to say there have been very few evaluations of its real effectiveness, often showing mixed or negative results in different places.”
The shooting on Memorial Drive happened outside where Shot Spotter covers in Cambridge. Still, Sound Thinking CEO Ralph Clark explains that they mostly put their technology in areas where lots of gunshots usually go unreported.
A bunch of residents and councilors who support dropping Shot Spotter linked their frustrations with what they see as the system making over-policing worse in Black and Brown neighborhoods. They also worry it adds pressure on legal aid groups by increasing case loads and causes lasting emotional harm for people living there – including those targeted by ICE.
The approved resolution focused heavily on Sound Thinking’s connection with U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It praised Cambridge’s “Welcoming Community Ordinance” that prevents local police from cooperating with ICE, marking it as a sanctuary city for undocumented immigrants.
Clark denied any ties between his company and ICE enforcement activities, saying Sound Thinking doesn’t share info with federal immigration agents.
“They have taken away a tool from the Cambridge PD that is meant to save lives and protect people,” Clark told the Herald Thursday. “I suspect, and we have seen this before, a lot of those voices that are ‘speaking on behalf of the people impacted’ are not really serious because they don’t have the lived experience of the folks living in neighborhoods that are unfortunately plagued with gunfire.”
Critics also voiced worries about possible voice surveillance and privacy issues within communities using Shot Spotter.
Clark referenced an independent privacy check done by New York University School of Law’s Policing Project back in 2019. It found an “extremely low” chance that Shot Spotter could be used for targeted voice spying. The report also said its built-in rules make it “highly unlikely” sensors would pick up human conversations at all.
“These are facts,” Clark said. “These are public facts that are very easy for people to get access to, if they are interested, versus being the desktop warriors showing up, spewing out feels.”
“Misinformation, mischaracterization, manufactured fear,” he added, “unfortunately, it’s putting people at risk.”
The City Council’s resolution mentions an “annual surveillance report” revealing that running Shot Spotter costs about $50,000 each year funded through DHS grants while Cambridge spends roughly $10,000 more annually out-of-pocket.
Around 190 cities across America use Shot Spotter-including some pretty progressive ones like Boston, Oakland and Denver. The system is even spreading internationally into places like Cape Town in South Africa and Brazil.
Bill Bratton-a former police chief for Boston & Los Angeles-said when he ran NYPD back in 2014 under Mayor Bill de Blasio (whom he called “one of America’s most progressive mayors”), de Blasio was strongly behind bringing in Shot Spotter technology.
Twelve years later Bratton-who now sits on Sound Thinking’s board-said New York cops still feel really good about having this detection tech available today.
“It is unfortunate that the citizens of Cambridge are actually the ones who end up the losers in this situation,” Bratton told the Herald Thursday; “and the criminals gain.”
A statement shared with The Herald by Cambridge City Manager Yi-An Huang noted under city rules around surveillance tech use: The City Council holds direct power every year to approve or reject or require changes regarding these tools.”
Zhuang added he’s currently talking things over with police leaders so a “timely response” will come soon enough.
“While it can be imperfect,” Huang said about Shot Spotter,”the Cambridge Police Department continues to believe it provides important information that supports a timely and accurate response to gunshots.”
“I greatly respect the role of the City Council,” he added,“and I appreciate the complexities and nuance of the discussions that led to five votes requesting the City end the use of Shot Spotter.”
The city has used Shotspotter since 2014-over ten years now-and according to Police Commissioner Pauline Wells spoke at council meetings saying it’s detected eleven shootings without any related 911 calls during this time frame.
Pauline Wells urged council members not to cut off use explaining how just recently police took three guns off streets connected only loosely-and none were reported via calls either.
“These were all loaded weapons, some equipped with large capacity magazines,” she explained,“and each case involved convicted felons carrying firearms illegally. They had guns while walking down same streets everyday citizens do.”
<Police surveillance equipment on Western Ave in Cambridge.(Staff photo by Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)
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