Youngstown is First Ohio City to Partner with ShotSpotter
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- ShotSpotter, Inc. the leading developer of mission-essential gunshot location systems announced today that the City of Youngstown and the Youngstown Police Department will be employing the ShotSpotter Wireless Gunshot Location System(R) - Stationary Array (WGLS-SA) as its latest tool to track, target, and deter gun crime. The technology is being funded via a $530,000 federal grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance and will detect, locate, and track firearm discharges over a two mile coverage area within the city.
A press conference will be held at the Youngstown City Hall (6th floor-Council Chambers) on Friday, January 22, at 11:30 a.m. EST. Mayor Jay Williams, Police Chief Jimmy Hughes, and ShotSpotter representatives will be on hand to discuss deployment of the ShotSpotter GLS.
"Stopping gun violence and the crime associated with it is a top priority for our department," said Hughes. "Using the ShotSpotter GLS to detect and track gunfire will add critical, actionable information to our current community policing efforts. This technology will help us improve our neighborhood presence and reduce response time; ultimately showing criminals that response to gunfire will not be tolerated and will be swiftly dealt with."
"By deploying a ShotSpotter GLS, the Youngstown Police Department will benefit from having previously unavailable gun crime alerts and activity data and as a result, a more complete picture of gun violence within the city," said Gregg Rowland, senior vice president of ShotSpotter, Inc. "The department will be able to analyze and act on this information to create more targeted crime prevention strategies and tactical response."
The ShotSpotter GLS detects, classifies, locates, and alerts first responders to gunfire and other explosive events in near real-time. Each event is logged into a historical database for strategic and tactical crime analysis that reveals crime trends, patterns, and hot spots within a coverage area. Event data has successfully corroborated and refuted eye witness testimony, established a timeline of events, and been used in crime scene reconstruction. Alerts direct responders to crime scenes creating a show-of-force that creates a lasting deterrence to shootings and violent crime. Today 50 cities and counties around the U.S. use system data and analytics to drive intelligence-led and CompStat policing and targeted tactical anti-crime operations and programs. Customers using the ShotSpotter GLS report a reduction in violent crime rates by at least 30 percent and gunfire rate reductions by as much as 60 to 80 percent.
In 2009 Youngstown Police Officers responded to 1,444 gunfire calls. In the same year the city experienced 23 homicides, the majority which involved firearms.
About ShotSpotter, Inc.
ShotSpotter, Inc. is the leading developer of mission-essential acoustic surveillance systems. Its flagship product, the ShotSpotter Gunshot Location System(R)-Stationary Array (GLS-SA), pioneered the use of wide-area acoustic surveillance coupled with audio analytics for public safety, homeland security, and military applications. For over a decade, our customers have relied on ShotSpotter GLS solutions to provide them with accurate event detection and actionable intelligence to aid their development of proactive anti-crime strategies and operations. Currently, ShotSpotter GLS solutions protect many cities and counties nationwide, consistently producing arrests and weapons confiscations. Information about ShotSpotter can be found at www.shotspotter.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://www.shotspotter.com/news/index.html.
ShotSpotter Gunshot Location System and the ShotSpotter logo are trademarks of ShotSpotter, Inc. All other company and product names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.
Source: ShotSpotter, Inc.
Released January 21, 2010