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The Syracuse Police Department will discontinue its use of a gunshot detection system in response to recent budget cuts. 

SPD rolled out the system, called ShotSpotter, in October 2017 to assist with investigations into reports of shots fired in the city, said SPD spokesperson Sgt. Matthew Malinowski. The program utilizes audio sensors around the city that can identify the sound of a gunshot, determine its location and report it to the department, according to the ShotSpotter website.

The ShotSpotter sensors currently cover a few square miles of Syracuse, with the majority located in the Southside neighborhood, Malinowski said. In the three years since its implementation, the technology has enabled SPD to respond to shooting incidents more effectively, he said.

“It mainly helps a lot with reporting the true number of shots fired calls we get,” he said. “A lot of times, people will hear shots fired, but they don’t call them in.” 

SPD decided to end its use of ShotSpotter technology after Mayor Walsh cut $18.1 million from Syracuse’s annual budget due to a sharp reduction in city revenue during the coronavirus pandemic. These cuts reduced SPD’s total funding for the 2021 fiscal year by over $1 million compared to the previous year. The annual fee for Syracuse’s ShotSpotter software is $227,500. 

Over 100 cities worldwide utilize ShotSpotter technology, according to the company’s website. 

Like Syracuse, other police departments have ended their use of the program due to budget cuts. The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office in California discontinued its system in 2019.

The program’s discontinuation in Syracuse comes as the city has seen an uptick in its number of shootings, according to Syracuse.com. As of August, almost 130 people had been shot in Syracuse in 2020 alone. 

Despite this, Malinowski does not anticipate the elimination of the ShotSpotter program will contribute to any significant escalation in the number of shootings in the city. The technology is more useful “after the fact” than it is for preventing gun violence, he said.

Malinowski doesn’t know when SPD will completely remove the ShotSpotter system from the city. The department is currently working with the ShotSpotter company to work out payment options for the ending of the program, he said. 

Published on October 4, 2020 at 10:05 pm

Contact Gillian: gifollet@syr.edu