The City of New Bern will consider adopting ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection system, at its Board of Aldermen meeting Tuesday. If adopted, New Bern will be the latest — and smallest — city in North Carolina to use the system.
Police Chief Patrick Gallagher pitched ShotSpotter to the Board in October, saying it will help his department respond more quickly to gunfire and save more lives.
“In response to gun violence, we have to leverage every available opportunity to protect those in our community,” he told the board at its October 24 meeting.
Gallagher proposed that the system be deployed over a single square mile in the Greater Duffyfield area and Craven Terrace. He said this is where most of the city’s gunshots occur. In the data he presented to the board, Gallagher said police have responded to 51 shots-fired call in the proposed area.
The weekend before the October presentation, a 14-year old had been apprehended by police after shooting off an AR-15 rifle. Gallagher said police acted quickly because they happened to be in the area and heard the shots.
"By the grace of God, no one was hurt," he said.
Gallagher also cited the death of 19-month old Nia'loni Sheptock, who was shot along with her father Nathan Sheptock while he was driving down Main Street on July 4th.
The aldermen chose to reconsider the proposal at its December meeting to give Gallagher time to find funding and secure community support.
The city left the purchase of ShotSpotter out of its annual budget earlier this year, so now they’re looking to community sponsors. The system is expected to cost roughly $50,000 annually.
The board also asked Chief Gallagher to secure support among those who live in Duffyfield, a historically Black neighborhood of New Bern.
"A lot of times when we're dealing with certain populations, sometimes they feel picked on," Aldermen Hazel Royall said. "Before I move forward on it, I'd like to see that community engagement."
In November, Gallagher and representatives of Sound Thinking, the company that produces ShotSpotter, met with members of the Greater Duffyfield Resident’s Council for an information session.
ShotSpotter uses a system of microphones – or sensors – and when a loud sound goes off, those microphones record it, and an algorithm decides whether the sound was likely a gunshot or something else – like a garbage truck or a car backfiring.
If the algorithm says it’s likely a gunshot, it sends a short clip of that sound to a person working at one of Sound Thinking’s review centers, and if they determine it’s probably gunfire, they’ll send an alert to police with the exact location of the sound. The whole process usually takes less than a minute.
“We're promising in our agreement that police will be notified in 60 seconds," Deb LeClare, a representative of Sound Thinking, told the crowd.
Residents took the opportunity to ask questions about the system. One asked if the ShotSpotter is able to "listen in" on conversations. The representatives said the system only records loud noises, and that the audio files are only accessible to police.
The representatives also shared the company will work with the city to place its microphones and that the system will be maintained by Sound Thinking if damaged.
Leaving the meeting, most residents appeared to support adding the system. Jackie Allen said she’s cautiously optimistic about the impact it may have on her neighborhood.
“I’m hoping that it will actually improve the community, because I wake up in the middle of the night to gunshots," she said. "But then also, the city is promising other things are going to be done in the community, and I’m wondering if it's going to take away from that.”
If approved, New Bern will be the latest city in North Carolina to use the technology. Durham, Fayetteville and Charlotte all use ShotSpotter in portions of their city. Greenville, which first installed the system in 2017, just renewed its contract for another three years.
“We were leaning towards not keeping it because of its expense, but when we looked at the data, what we what we determined was that only 10% of all shots fired calls are called in by the public,” Chris Ivey, Greenville's deputy chief of police, told PRE.
Ivey said the system has helped his department collect more evidence like shell casings on site and check for DNA or other markers. He said it has helped to reduce crime and lead to more arrests in the area where it’s used, but he also cautioned that many factors contribute to the rise and fall of crime.
“So far in 2023, we've seen a pretty significant reduction in violent crime, but that's cyclical,” Ivey said.
On Sunday, the New Bern Board of Aldermen will consider signing a contract with Sound Thinking. As for how to pay for it, Aldermen Bobby Aster has offered $50,000 from his ward's designated American Rescue Plan Act money.
The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday at 6pm on the second floor of Town Hall.
