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Crime, Law and Justice
Cari Spencer

Council members to examine strengthening Minneapolis ties to ShotSpotter technology

A man wearing a beanie speaks
Ward 5 council member Jeremiah Ellison speaks during a meeting in Minneapolis in July. Ellison has called for a closer look at the effectiveness of ShotSpotter in responding to gun violence.
Ben Hovland | MPR News

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Minneapolis’ contract for gunfire detection technology — most commonly referred to as ShotSpotter — is up for a council committee discussion Monday, as some are asking if city taxpayers should pay more for it.

Since 2007, the city has contracted with the company now known as SoundThinking Inc., to provide a system of acoustic detectors that alert law enforcement of potential gunfire.

In recent years, several cities have opted out, citing a lack of proof the technology makes cities safer — including Chicago, where the technology will be decommissioned later this month.

Minneapolis is the only city in Minnesota with a ShotSpotter contract and the city may keep it longer.

Council members will discuss extending the contract through March 2027 and potentially expanding its reach. That conversation had been punted down the line as, for the past several months, council members have raised concerns that there isn’t a clear enough picture of how effective the technology is in the city.

As the council nails down Minneapolis’ future with ShotSpotter, they've been hearing from those who want to expand the technology’s reach and those who want it canceled entirely.

Alexander Lindenfelser, who conducts research at the University of Minnesota Law School and Legal Rights Center in Minneapolis, found that Black and Native residents were 3.3 times more likely to live in ShotSpotter areas than white residents.

He pointed to a Chicago Office of Inspector General report that found evidence the tech changes how officers interact with people, such as basing the decision to stop and pat people down, on how often ShotSpotter alerts happen in a community.

“Police are more likely to believe they are entering a dangerous situation in a dangerous neighborhood. Police interactions in responding to a ShotSpotter activation have the potential to escalate in ways that damage community trust.”

In August, the council heard from the city's 911 director Joni Hodne who praised the technology for assisting in emergency dispatches and aiding victims. She said ShotSpotter takes less than a minute to give dispatchers a precise location to send police.

“Our call takers are trained to calm the individual and gather crucial information, but this can take time. Some incidents go without having a 911 caller at all,” Hodne said.

Chief Brian O'Hara said the technology helped identify where homicides occurred.

“If we would have not known where the homicide occurred, we've not been able to obtain the appropriate video footage that captured the suspect vehicle shooting the victim, and the case might not have been solved,” O’Hara told council members.

Council member Jeremiah Ellison has said the city needs better empirical understanding of its efficacy beyond anecdotes of success.

“We're just kind of making the case for why we need it, as opposed to actually just taking a lucid, sort of look at the landscape,” Ellison said. “It's not a conversation about whether or not we're going to have ShotSpotter I think it's a conversation about what is our investment yielding us?”

Council members also will consider expanding the coverage area to more of south Minneapolis, including Loring Park, Lyn-Lake and Whittier.

That proposed amendment would tack on about $980,000.

Early September, the council directed staff to contract an independent consultant to analyze the program's effectiveness. Council member Katie Cashman had previously voiced support for that.

“I do support extending the SoundThinking contract and expanding it into largely into Ward 7…where we are experiencing a lot of gun violence,” Cashman said. “But I also think our community deserves sound data on how this investment in technology serves us and addresses our gun violence issues."

Some council members have expressed interest in a more limited contract that allows the city to pivot if an evaluation shows it's a poor investment.