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Shoot Into the Mic: NYPD Deploying Technology to Better Track Gunshots

By MARK TOOR
Posted 3/23/15

Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner William J. Bratton last week announced a pilot program in which sensitive microphones placed in various locations will be used to report random gunshots and speed police cars to the scene.

The system, called ShotSpotter, has been criticized in several of the dozens of jurisdictions that use it for high rates of inaccuracy—reporting automobile backfires and dump-truck noises as gunshots, for instance—and for forcing officers to waste time responding to false alarms. The NYPD said it was taking steps to address those issues.

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