On May 31, 2018, the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) began using advanced technology in an attempt to combat gun violence.[1]  ShotSpotter, which is used in more than ninety cities across America, is a gunshot detection system that is now strategically placed in high crime, and typically poverty-stricken, areas of East and West Baltimore.[2]  The technology comes at no cheap cost, however.  The $860,000 price tag is funded through a grant for one year.[3]  At the end of the one-year trial period, the technology will be reviewed in order to determine if BPD should continue and expand its use.[4]

The technology functions off of highly sensitive audio sensors that are placed on top of buildings in Baltimore.[5]  When the network of sensors detects gunshots, BPD officers are notified of suspected gunshots through an app on their cellphone.[6]  ShotSpotter boasts that the entire process takes roughly thirty seconds to one minute to notify officers of possible gunshots, ensuring that officers can respond to the scene quickly and intelligently.[7]  Officers receive detailed information such as a map of the suspected location, number of suspected gunshots, possible number of firearms involved, and an audio recording of the sound, which can be replayed.[8]  The sensors retain the recording for seventy-two hours.[9]  Upon request, BPD can receive an in-depth forensic report that includes information such as direction and speed of a shooter in motion.[10]

In its first night on the job in Baltimore, ShotSpotter detected and recorded four incidents of gunshots.[11]  BPD claimed officers were able to respond in secondsafter receiving the information on their cellphones.[12]  Although officers found no victims from any of the four separate incidents recorded by ShotSpotter, Interim Baltimore Police Commissioner Gary Tuggle pronounced a hopeful reaction after the first night claiming, “[i]t’s going to aid us significantly in the crime fight.”[13]  Tuggle has explained that BPD anticipates ShotSpotter will cut down response time, while simultaneously providing a more accurate representation of the number of shootings in Baltimore.[14]  BPD believes the street culture in Baltimore discourages neighbors and people who have heard or witnessed a shooting from calling 911.

Considering ShotSpotter’s time in Baltimore is still in the trial phase, the impact on the rising Baltimore crime rate as well as its use in court is yet to be determined.  BPD claims that the recordings have been admissible in court in other cities,[15]and ShotSpotter claims that the technology surpasses the Daubert and Frye standard.[16]  But in those cities across America, the technology has presented grave privacy concerns for citizens.  In one case originating out of Oakland, California, where it is estimated that more than seventy-five percent of the city is being monitored by the technology, officers serving a warrant were shot at.[17]  The suspected shooter claimed he did not know it was the police entering his home and thus acting in self-defense when he shot at the intruders.[18]  But the prosecution introduced the recording from ShotSpotter, where officers can be heard commanding “freeze police” prior to gunshots ringing out.[19]  In other cases, the victim was recorded yelling out the name of someone who prosecutors later argued was the trigger-puller.[20]

The company, however, claims that the technology cannot record conversations even though the sensors are constantly recording.[21]  The sensors are listening for “explosion-like” sounds, which then trigger the rapid response notification to officers.[22]  The company is also tackling issues such as false activations; fireworks and loud construction sites may trigger the sensors and send an alert to officers.[23]  BPD’s draft policy outlining protocol for officers when responding to a ShotSpotter alert indicates that officers need not fill out a report if the alert is a confirmed false activation.[24]

While the ShotSpotter technology is only in its inception here in Baltimore, the technology presents various privacy concerns that are yet to be tackled in Maryland courts.  As the technology gains traction over the yearlong trial phase, attorneys, judges, and citizens should be concerned with the overbroad reach the always listening Big Brother-like technology imposes.

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Amy L. Valdivia will receive a Juris Doctorate from the University of Baltimore School of Law in May 2019, with a concentration in criminal law.  Ms. Valdivia grew up in Essex, Maryland and currently resides in Harford County. For the past two years, Ms. Valdivia has served as a Student Attorney for the Innocence Project, where she investigates innocence claims and represents wrongfully convicted individuals.  Prior to law school, she received a B.S. in Justice Studies from James Madison University.  Following the Bar exam, Ms. Valdivia will begin her career as an Assistant Public Defender for the Maryland Office of the Public Defender.

All thoughts and opinions expressed in this article are my own.

She may be reached at amy.valdivia@ubalt.edu with questions or comments.

[1]Tim Prudente & Sarah Meehan, Baltimore’s new gunshot detection system hears four shootings in first night, The Baltimore Sun, June 1, 2018, https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/
maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-shotspotter-20180601-story.html

[2]Id.

[3]Id.

[4]Id.

[5]Id.

[6]Ethan McLeod, ShotSpotter audio sensors deployed in East, West Baltimore to help BPD detect gunfire, Baltimore FishBowl, June 1, 2018, https://baltimorefishbowl.com/stories/shotspotter-audio-sensors-deployed-in-east-west-baltimore-to-help-bpd-detect-gunfire/

[7]Id.

[8]Id.

[9]Prudente, supra, note 1.

[10]Policy 1006, Baltimore Police Department, July 10, 2018, accessed via: https://www.baltimorepolice.org/1006-draft-shotspotter-gunshot-detection-service

[11]Prudente, supra, note 1.

[12]Id.

[13]Id.

[14]Id.

[15]Prudente, supra, note 1.

[16]ShotSpotter, https://www.shotspotter.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/FAQ_Aug_2018.pdf

[17]Andrew Stelzer, Is this crime-fighting technique invading your privacy?, whyy, Nov. 22, 2016, https://whyy.org/segments/is-this-crime-fighting-technique-invading-your-privacy/

[18]Id.

[19]Id.

[20]Id.

[21]Jay Stanley, Shotspotter CEO Answers Questions on Gunshot Detectors in Cities, ACLU, May 5, 2015, https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/shotspotter-ceo-answers-questions-gunshot

[22]Id.

[23]Prudente, supra, note 1.

[24]Policy 1006, Baltimore Police Department, July 10, 2018, accessed via: https://www.baltimorepolice.org/1006-draft-shotspotter-gunshot-detection-service (noting that the policy is a draft that has been created, but not implemented, as a result of the Consent Decree BPD has entered with the United States Department of Justice.).