On May 17, 2023, Jefferson Luna-Perez was tragically shot and killed in a parking lot outside Roosevelt High School in Petworth, Washington, D.C.
Just a short distance away, a ShotSpotter sensor was monitoring gunfire in the area, part of a controversial gunshot detection system employed by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
Despite significant investment since the early 2000s, the efficacy and oversight of ShotSpotter have come under scrutiny, prompting questions about whether its continuation is justified.
While other cities have severed ties with SoundThinking Inc., the firm behind the system, independent reviews of ShotSpotter have raised serious concerns about its effectiveness and civil rights implications.
In a troubling revelation, MPD officials reported that the sensor failed to detect the gunfire that resulted in Luna-Perez’s death, even though the incident occurred within its coverage range of approximately 1,200 feet.
By the time officers were alerted, Luna-Perez was already unconscious and was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital shortly thereafter.
Although MPD prioritizes ShotSpotter alerts similar to low-priority calls, such as traffic complaints, the implications of these alerts have been questioned.
Without verifiable confirmation of an actual shooting, alerts derived from ShotSpotter are treated as less urgent, complicating the police response.
Research conducted by City Paper and the Investigative Reporting Workshop has uncovered discrepancies by comparing crime data with ShotSpotter alerts.
Between January 2014 and January 2025, at least three confirmed shootings, including Luna-Perez’s death, occurred in areas monitored by ShotSpotter but were not detected by the system.
This raises broader concerns about the accuracy of ShotSpotter in identifying gunfire and its potential failure to assist officers in a timely manner.
While MPD maintains a database of the sounds captured by ShotSpotter, it has not adequately tracked which alerts correlate to confirmed shootings, leading to challenges in assessing the system’s reliability.
Inaugurated in 2005 as part of the “Building a Safer DC” initiative, ShotSpotter expanded its coverage area significantly over the years, at one point advertised to cover 17 square miles across multiple police districts.
The financial investment in ShotSpotter speaks to its perceived importance, with MPD reportedly spending over $5 million on the program since 2016 alone.
Despite existing concerns surrounding the technology, the D.C. Council allocated nearly $1.8 million in fiscal year 2023 aimed at further integrating ShotSpotter into a new “real-time crime center.”
Critics have pointed out that ShotSpotter deployments are disproportionately clustered in areas largely populated by communities of color.
Wards 7 and 8 comprised the majority of sensor installations, while the sensor presence in predominantly white Wards 2 and 3 was markedly limited.
Such disparity raises significant civil rights concerns regarding possible over-policing in marginalized communities.
Statistics reveal that of ShotSpotter alerts generated from January 2014 to January 2023, a striking 43 percent originated in Ward 8 alone.
Further analysis by City Paper indicated that the alarmingly high concentration of alerts in areas with significant Black populations needs thorough examination.
In a related development, the 2024 Wired investigation disclosed that these trends resonate nationwide, positing that ShotSpotter sensors are predominantly located in low-income neighborhoods of color.
Despite contractual obligations requiring SoundThinking to provide MPD with regular reports detailing sensor locations and the nature of alerts, MPD officials noted that this information is no longer shared.
The lack of transparency contributes to a growing sense of distrust amongst planners and governor officials regarding the utility of ShotSpotter.
As cities across the nation reassess their strategies for utilizing ShotSpotter technology, questions loom about whether the District will follow suit.
While the homicide rate in D.C. saw a notable decrease in 2024, the increase in the clearance rate for homicides does not correlate directly with the investment in ShotSpotter.
Eric Piza, a co-director at Northeastern University’s Crime Prevention Lab, argues that ShotSpotter may improve police response and evidence collection but is unlikely to reduce gun violence or enhance investigative outcomes.
Research funded by the Department of Justice supports this view, as a comprehensive evaluation of the technology in cities like Kansas City and Chicago yielded similarly disappointing conclusions.
According to a Chicago Inspector General’s probe of the technology, inadequate record-keeping hampered any meaningful assessment regarding the effectiveness of ShotSpotter, leading to a rejection of contract extensions.
In another case, an audit of New York City’s usage of ShotSpotter found that the system might be counterproductive, leading officers to investigate thousands of incidents falsely identified as shootings.
Despite these findings, New York’s police department opted for a substantial contract extension with SoundThinking, further complicating the debate about the system’s operational efficacy.
In light of the findings that suggest ShotSpotter underdelivers on its promises, a coalition of Democratic senators prompted an inquiry into the system’s deployment strategies and their implications.
As the call for reassessment intensifies, SoundThinking’s CEO defended the technology, insisting that timely alerts benefit police and help collect critical evidence.
Meanwhile, Luna-Perez’s case remains tragically unsolved, illustrating the broader struggles surrounding gun violence in D.C.
As officials navigate these fraught terrains of public safety, the community continues to question the role of technology in crime fighting and accountability.
With no arrests made two years after the incident, unanswered questions linger, underscoring the urgent need for effective strategies in combating gun violence.
image source from：https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/766017/police-surveillance-shotspotter/
