Blast Fishing, scarcely known in Europe and North America, is a pernicious practice threatening a majority of tropical reefs and the food supply of a billion people. Fish blasters take advantage of the efficiency bombing above reef areas contrasted to traditional methods of netting or spearing.  But by bombing over the reefs they destroy the reefs and hence the homes of the fish, which takes years to recover.  The text and figures and videos below give examples of this worldwide scourge.

ShotSpotter researchers have been working for six years with the international environmental coalition Stop Fish Bombing (www.StopFishBombing.org). Our aim is to provide the necessary blast location capability to enable marine law enforcement to intercept the illegal blasters. In coordination with legal and social reforms, timely reporting of blast locations to law enforcement can help prevent blast fishing.

This map shows one of the most concentrated regions of damage located in the Coral Triangle area of SE Asia.  Note that the northern portion of Borneo is in a severely impacted area, and that is where ShotSpotter and the Stop Fish Bombing group have done our testing.  The area is peppered with small villages that have been threatened by the illegal bombers. In some cases, they are used as local labor to gather bombed fish, in others the bombers simply take over a village, plundering whatever they want.  There is also an industrial angle, as the capability to fill a mothership with hundreds of pounds of fish during a weeklong fishing expedition becomes attractive on a larger scale.

This 3-minute movie from United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) illustrates blast fishing in the Philippines.

Figure from Reefs at Risk Revisited, published by the World Resources Institute (Burke, 2011).

Due to the remoteness of the bombings and the limited resources of local governments to counter the threat, the current situation is escalating out of control, with resulting loss of reefs and fish stocks.  This threatens the food supply, livelihood, and in the case of Malaysia, a 300-million-dollar tourism industry centered around scuba diving.  The image below shows how a reef looks after it is destroyed.  The visual demonstrates just how devastating a bombing can be to a pristine reef. Recovery from this type of damage takes decades.

The sequence of events we envision to fight the problem is shown in the next diagram.  We are proposing that locating bombers in real-time with our BlastSpotter system will allow marine law enforcement forces to interdict the bombers, and to create a deterrent.  Behavior of criminals has shown that the certainty of detection is more important than the severity of punishment.

Marine forces can use boats, drones, radar, and long-range photography to apprehend the blasters.  As with our urban systems, actual data of time and location of the blasting can replace the tendency of governmental denial of the problem with a clear avenue for local governments to more effectively expend their resources fighting the problem.

The panel of four photos below is from one of our trips to Sabah, Malaysia (Northern Borneo).  Here we successfully tested the ShotSpotter acoustic method underwater, under the auspices of the Fisheries Department. The man holding the beer-bottle bombs (made with household materials) is about to fuse and toss one of them into the water. The person attending to the BlastSpotter acoustic sensor package in the bow of the boat is a Stop Fish Bombing colleague from Sabah, and the leader of our test. The hydrophone boom was mounted on a pier piling at about mid-water depth, and the fourth photo shows the diver who inspected the sandy bottom area of our test to ensure that no schools of fish were present.

The next panel shows the geometry of the acoustic array in Gaya Bay, where we conducted the test.  The results are summarized in text and in a presentation on the command vessel to the head of the Fisheries Department.

Also seen below is a photo of Clark Dunson and Dr. Robert Showen, founder of ShotSpotter on the command vessel looking at and appreciating the results of the testing.

Then we moved our equipment several hundred miles to a series of reefs in Northeastern Borneo (just North of the world-renowned Sipadan dive site) where fish blasting was known to occur. The Seaventures scuba platform (former oil rig) was the site of one of the three sensors used, shown as golden crosses in the panel below. The overlapping red map pointers show locations of 2 blasts separated in time and distance by one hour and ½ km. A photograph of the two small fishing boats – likely the blasters – was taken from the Seaventures platform, 20 m above the water, and a distance of 8 km away.

Below is a photo of Clark Dunson with the Seaventures platform in the background, where he and Terence Lim had just dived to install the underwater acoustic array.  To his left you can see the top of one of the acoustic sensors, with two black cellular antennae.

Double click on the embedded icon of the WAV file below to hear an 8-sec audio snippet of the first blast we located. The smaller impulses are clearly distinguishable from the blast.

Here is an expanded view of the center of the same audio file showing the blast with its reverberation decay, and its spectra. The horizontal axis is time in seconds, and the vertical axes are arbitrary amplitude and frequency in Hz. Sample rate is 12 kHz, so the maximum frequency available is 6000 Hz.

The denizens of the area where we have been operating are a combination of Malaysian citizens – mostly fishers, the stateless Baja Laut, and Philippine pirates.
(Bajau Laut: colloquially ‘sea gypsies’, see here.)

These indigenous peoples have been residents of this area for a millennium. Here are pictures of a Baja Laut boat and a village. In some cases, they are obvious victims of blast fishing, which ruins the environment they use for fishing. Some of the Baja people oppose and some use fish blasting. Due to pressure of tourism, much from China, the stock of fish is being rapidly depleted. A fuller understanding of their culture is available at this 26-minute video.

The “Stop Fish Bombing” coalition has been involved with several governments in the Coral Triangle, including Indonesia, East Timor, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. Additionally, they have participated in US Navy Civilian-Military Security Conventions and are in contact with the US Department of State. In Malaysia, several initiatives to protect the ocean and to use our methods to fight against the blasters are under discussion, including taxing tourism to pay for the BlastSpotter installation and operations. But financing remains the primary obstacle to beginning actual projects.

The coalition’s patron is Jose Ramos-Horta, Nobel peace prize winner in 1996 for helping to free East Timor (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Ramos-Horta). Sir Robin Christopher is an advisor and related to a Stop Fish Bomber founder (https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Robin_Christopher).

Results of our joint work is described in a scientific paper published in March 2018 in the Marine Pollution Bulletin. The title, Highlights, and Abstract of this paper immediately follow.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Locating fish bomb blasts in real-time using a networked acoustic system
By R.Showen(a) C.Dunson(a) G.H.Woodman(b) S.Christopher(c) T.Limc S.C.Wilson(d)

• a ShotSpotter Inc., Suite 210, 7979 Gateway Blvd, Newark, CA 94560, USA
• b Teng Hoi Conservation Organization, Room 1906, 19/F, China Insurance Group Building, 141 Des Voeux Road, Central, Hong Kong
• c Scubazoo Images Sdn. Bhd., 3, Jalan Nosoob Hungab, 88300 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
• d Five Oceans Environmental Services LLC, P.O. Box 660, Postal Code 131, Hamriyah, Oman

Highlights
• Networked underwater acoustic sensors can locate fish blasting in real time.
• Excellent system accuracy and long range of sensors is demonstrated.
• Governments can now more readily suppress the practice of fish blasting.

Abstract
Results are presented of a demonstration of real-time fish blast location in Sabah, Malaysia using a networked hydro acoustic array based on the ShotSpotter gunshot location system. A total of six acoustic sensors – some fixed and others mobile – were deployed at ranges from 1 to 9 km to detect signals from controlled test blasts. This allowed the blast locations to be determined to within 60 m accuracy, and for the calculated locations to be displayed on a map on designated internet-connected computers within 10 s. A smaller three-sensor system was then installed near Semporna in Eastern Sabah that determined the locations of uncontrolled blasts set off by local fishermen. The success of these demonstrations shows that existing technology can be used to protect reefs and permit more effective management of blast fishing activity through improved detection and enforcement measures and enhanced community engagement.

Graphical Abstract

This graphical abstract shows a Blast boat in Gaya Bay used to create underwater blasts to test the ShotSpotter method of location. The blasts were similar in size to what is used by blast fishers who fill a large beer bottle with explosives.

Use this link to read, “Locating fish bomb blasts in real-time using a networked acoustic system” which was published in Science Direct.

This link brings forth both the manuscript, carefully honed by the 6 authors, and a Supplementary File (found just before the References) which contains several audio files of test blasts and community blasts.

We are hoping that the arguments made in the paper will convince oceanographers, environmentalists, governments and communities to consider our approach to elimination of the blast fishing culture.

The post Fighting the Scourge of Blast Fishing appeared first on ShotSpotter.

ShotSpotter Respond is aptly named as it is designed specifically for those personnel who are assigned to respond to the alerts in real-time. It has much of the information needed for responders to 1.) determine a safe, tactically sound approach and 2.)  search a defined area for evidence after the scene is secure. Although it is designed with responders in mind, this application can be used by other personnel who wish to receive real-time alerts. ShotSpotter Respond is not an application recommended for communication centers, but we will have a new application for those important personnel sometime in early 2018 (look for the release of ShotSpotter Dispatch!).

Some of the key benefits that remain in ShotSpotter Respond include:
• Real-time alerts to any compatible device of your choosing to insure receiving the alert no matter where you are.

• Critical gunfire event information to aid in a safer, tactically sound approach:

    -Notification of possible multiple shooters, high capacity weapons and fully automatic weapons

   – Gunfire audio to review while responding

   – Satellite map showing the gunfire location within 25M

    -Timer that indicates the trigger pull time

   -Time, date and location to help bolster reasonable suspicion and/or probable cause

• Ability to use the map for preliminary investigations:

    -Use the 25M area to define a search area

    -Use the map to determine an area to canvass for witnesses/victims

    -Use the canvassing opportunity to build partnerships with the community

Some of the new functions of ShotSpotter Respond include:

• User controlled map themes

    -Dark or light-colored map view depending on surroundings

    -Ability to show ShotSpotter coverage area and agency district/beat boundaries

    -Ability to real-time text chat with ShotSpotter is back (not available on mobile devices)

If your agency is looking for training or support materials for ShotSpotter Respond, please contact ShotSpotter at support@shotspotter.com.

To visit our ShotSpotter Respond page, go to: https://www.shotspotter.com/ShotSpotter-RespondandDispatch

The post ShotSpotter Respond Released! appeared first on ShotSpotter.

Leading into this new year, after a vigorous internal debate and self-reflective critique, we have decided to establish a higher bar on our Service Level Agreement (SLA) standards and to be intentional about what should happen if these high standards are not met.  As many of you know, since the inception of the company, we have had two primary SLA benchmarks: a gunshot detection rate of 80 percent or more and geographic accuracy of 25 meters or less.  Although in practice our experience has been that we consistently perform well beyond those benchmarks, our commitment to you is to increase the SLA gunshot detection rate benchmark to a threshold of at least 90 percent. Furthermore, we plan to add SLA metrics reflective of the overall customer experience, including overall service availability and reviewed alert performance. Most importantly – we are adding a credit provision if we do not perform to these new committed SLA standards.

I am very proud of the process we went through as a company – challenging ourselves to do and be better on behalf of our customers who invest their precious and limited financial and operational resources in our solution. We will work with current customers on the steps needed to incorporate these new standards into existing ShotSpotter agreements moving forward.

Over the years, we have learned a lot about how to deploy and operate a sensor-based gunshot detection system in all manner of difficult acoustic environments.  We have improved sensor functionality, increased sensor density in our deployed arrays and invested in overall system resiliency. However, the best asset we have is the feedback we receive from our customers. This feedback is a valuable learning loop, which helps us drive customer satisfaction and trust.  Although it would be impractical to offer a 100 percent failsafe solution, we can commit to the goal of striving for continuous improvement.

We look forward to continuing to improve the customer experience and the efficacy of our solution, while becoming a better version of ourselves. 

Happy New Year and Good Luck with any resolutions that you have committed to in 2018!

The post ShotSpotter’s New Year’s Resolution appeared first on ShotSpotter.

Steps to Curtail Celebratory Gunfire
We have found that when law enforcement agencies proactively take steps to curtail illegal celebratory gunfire and educate the community, there has been success in reducing incidents. ShotSpotter experts offer these five proven tips for law enforcement officials to help reduce celebratory gunfire this New Year’s Eve:

1. Start Planning Ahead – Do research in advance to identify hot spot areas and address where celebratory gunfire was detected last year.
2. Communicate and collaborate broadly. In addition to engaging agency personnel, incorporate local prosecutors and local trauma hospital leadership to amplify the danger of celebratory gunfire.
3. Knock on doors – Assign uniformed agency personnel to visit each address on the hot spot list and talk with residents during the days before New Year’s Eve. Take the time to explain the dangers of celebratory gunfire and tell of first-hand tragedies the local agency might have experienced.
4. Enforce consequences of celebratory gunfire – Remind residents of the criminal consequences of celebratory gunfire.  (ShotSpotter recommends publicizing and enforcing a strict “no tolerance” policy on this activity and aggressive prosecution of the case.) Use social media to get the word out about the consequences and encourage your community to educate one another about the dangers of illegal celebratory gunfire.
5. Assign special police units – During the New Year’s Eve period assign special police units, or overtime cars, to hot spot areas for quick response to gunfire alerts.

Engaging Your Community:
• Broadly announce your agency’s New Year’s Eve proactive policing plan, using a combination of community meetings, notices, and social media.
• Engage community and community leaders – Make them aware of the dangers of celebratory gunfire and encourage them to report all incidents.
• Encourage media to report about the dangers of celebratory gunfire – Educate readers that law enforcement will take an active role to catch and prosecute celebratory gunfire offenders.

Please be sure to visit our online toolkit for downloadable templates for law enforcement use and additional tools to combat illegal urban gunfire on New Year’s Eve here:

The post Engaging Your Community Now to Prevent Illegal Celebratory Gunfire on NYE appeared first on ShotSpotter.

Many campuses are spread over multiple city blocks, with students and staff dispersed throughout the community in residence halls, sorority and fraternity houses, academic buildings and administrative offices; in addition to the businesses that support campus life like bookstores, coffee shops, restaurants, and bars.  In today’s world, that means campus police are responsible for more than just the safety of the campus-proper, but also the community near campus where their students and staff live, work, and play.

In addition to managing the day-to-day campus security threats, Security Directors must now take a broader view and approach to ensuring that their campuses are secure and prepared for larger threats that could come their way.

We know that in any shooting situation, every minute matters and lives depend on fast action.  ShotSpotter’s SecureCampus is a technology solution designed specifically to help campus police protect their greater on-and-off campus community.  Our platform offers acoustic gunshot detection to provide critical information concerning gunfire within seconds to police.  SecureCampus functions much like a fire alarm system for gunshots, alerting police nearly immediately while identifying the precise location of the shooting.  This information can prove invaluable by helping law enforcement respond quickly and accurately. 

It is not uncommon for SecureCampus to alert the police so quickly and accurately that they almost instantly arrive at the scene in time to help shooting victims receive life-saving medical attention.  In fact, on a number of instances, the police arrived so quickly, witnesses and even suspects were still in the area, which ultimately led to arrests.  Read our SecureCampus case study at a West Coast world-class university here.

With the many threats we face in today’s world, we still want people to know that it is a great time to enjoy all that our universities have to offer. The good news is that with some pre-planning and the right technology, schools can greatly enhance their campus security and put the focus back on those special events, not on the security risks they pose. Learn more about how SecureCampus can help your school or university at https://www.shotspotter.com/campus-security.

The post Student Events Create Challenges for Campus Security appeared first on ShotSpotter.

Many city leaders and police chiefs who I encounter have gun violence issues which they desperately want to address, but “believe” they cannot take advantage of ShotSpotter. They are concerned that if less than 20% of illegal gun discharges is reported via conventional means of a 9-1-1 call for service that the potential 5X ShotSpotter alerts will overwhelm their limited resources.  Their latent fear is that they will miss-set community expectations of response times that they will be unable to meet. On the surface 5X the awareness and accountability (although not necessarily the actual gunfire-as it is happening) seems daunting.

In fact, when you do a deeper dive on the data from various ShotSpotter deployments you see the opposite is true. Agencies and the respective communities they serve are greatly benefiting from the enhanced response efficiency of getting a real time, location precise alert with almost zero false positives vs the one-off “I heard shots fired somewhere out there” call.

We compared three ShotSpotter cities – one in the West, one in the Southwest, and one in the Midwest to gain some insights into the force-multiplier question. These three cities have ShotSpotter coverage areas ranging from 3.2 to 11.8 and 12.8 square miles, and all have populations of 500,000-700,000. The data shows that all three cities have roughly one-third of their total activations taking place during the three eight-hour shifts of Thursday/Friday/Saturday from 8pm-4am. The activations average from 3.7 to 5.4 and 7.9- per weekend and, respectively, represented a range of 38.4%, 32.1% and 37.1% of all of their activations.

When you then consider the average activations per square mile for these cities you can build a pro-forma case for a hypothetical city deployment. Assuming 500 to 1,000 ShotSpotter alerts per square mile per year, a five square mile deployment would generate 2,500 to 5,000 activations total per year. At first blush this might appear to be overwhelming, compared to the usual 500-1,000 9-1-1 calls generated given the 20% or less under-reporting issue. However, when our rule of 33% distribution of activations over the 8pm to 4am weekend period is applied, the “art of the possible” becomes clearer. Our hypothetical city would generate 900 to 1,800 activations per year over those three shifts or even better −17 to 35 activations per weekend.

Therefore, what law enforcement would need to do in our hypothetical city is be able to organize and resource themselves to respond to 17 to 35 activations per weekend. Not a heavy lift if you prioritize responding to and investigating gunfire incidents, and in the process, increase community engagement. Many law enforcement agencies are resource poor, but given the high social and economic cost of gun violence, what better use of those resources is there than prioritizing them towards de-normalizing and deterring gun violence through a more comprehensive and precise response.

Now let’s look at the potential outcomes. Although ShotSpotter’s primary value proposition is in deterring gun violence and not necessarily driving high numbers of arrests, it is interesting to note that across our three deployments, we see a minimum of 40 arrests and a minimum of 25 guns seized, with as many as 103 guns seized in the one city that had over 8,000 activations. Even better are the NIBIN/IBIS hits that top off at 403 for the most active of our three cities. This is where the prevention and deterrence strategy is critical. The more quickly you can investigate and determine who your shooters are the more targeted you can be in your law enforcement interventions before there is a homicide. Most significantly, and perhaps more difficult to measure, is the huge social and economic benefit of an underserved community seeing comprehensive; timely and precise responses to gunfire incidents that previously had little to no response (that is a separate blog post).

This data provides us an interesting way to start a conversation with cities that are interested in reducing gun violence through a more comprehensive response strategy, but which are concerned with the resources needed to be successful. The analysis shows that contrary to what many believe, not having enough manpower to respond to gun violence is exactly why those cities should be considering ShotSpotter. The data from our three cities reveals some of the possibilities and demonstrates measurable outcomes.

The post Proactive Policing – It’s in the numbers appeared first on ShotSpotter.

Demo ShotSpotter gunfire alerts on your phone
Have you tried our ShotSpotter app on your mobile phone yet? We’ll be actively sharing a trial of the app for your phone as you stop by the booth – bring your iOS or Android device and learn what it’s like to get real-time gunfire on your phone while you’re at IACP!

Learn about Forensics services at ShotSpotter booth
Did you know that ShotSpotter offers forensic services and analysis, expert witness testimony, integration services as well as 24/7/365 technical support? Stop by and talk to the Services team and learn more.

Live Solutions Panel, Monday 11AM
On Monday, October 23rd, ShotSpotter will be presenting at the IACP Solutions Theater in #825 at 11AM. Ron Teachman, former Chief of South Bend and SST’s current Director of Midwest Public Safety Solutions will moderate an engaging group around the topic of: The Social Impact of Persistent Gunfire. In this interactive discussion, you will hear from law enforcement professionals who have experienced the economic, social and financial consequences of ongoing gun violence in their cities.  Learn their models of success — find out how they reduced gunfire incidents and improved community relationships through strategic, proactive policing and innovative technology.

You won’t want to miss hearing from these impressive panelists who are also current customers hailing from Kentucky, Connecticut, Chicago and Cincinnati:

• Major Josh Judah, Louisville Police Department
• Sergeant John O’Hare, Hartford Police Department
• Commander Kenneth A. Johnson, Chicago Police Department
• Lieutenant Colonel Paul W. Neudigate, Assistant Police Chief, Cincinnati Police Department

On the heels of our ShotSpotter sponsored panel, look for us again at noon, in the same place, Solutions Panel #825 as our ShotSpotter Customer Success Director John Risenhoover will appear on a panel, sponsored by GunOps entitled: Why Overlaying Technology is Important in Preventing Firearm Violence. Guest panelists include John Risenhoover, Jim Needles, Paul Neudigate, and Geoffrey Noble

Win aFitBit Exercise Tracker while at IACP!

And… remember that every day at our booth, you can enter a drawing to win a FitBit exercise tracker. 

We look forward to seeing you!
 

The post IACP 2017: A preview of ShotSpotter at IACP (Booth #1113)- October 22-25, Philadelphia, PA appeared first on ShotSpotter.

What’s the best way to plan and get prepared? Use ShotSpotter’s 6 helpful tips below.

6 Tips to Engage Your Community to Prevent Illegal Gunfire this July 4th:

1. Analyze 2016 Gunfire in each Neighborhood:  The best way to plan for the 4th of July this year is to analyze what happened last year — Where did gunfire happen on July 4th in 2016? Find this information, and print it and then get your law enforcement personnel together. Then, together come up with a plan to reach out to these neighborhoods that had busy gunfire last year.

2. Contact Each Resident on Your 2016 List: Get uniformed agency personnel to go to each address on the list and knock on these doors.  Make sure you contact the resident of each home on the list. If the resident is not home, be sure to leave behind a 4th of July Door hanger so that they can have information to contact your PD if they have questions or can provide a tip. Follow the instructions on the ShotSpotter for how to get the best results using door hangers.

3. Educate Neighborhood Residents: When you talk to residents, explain that there was celebratory gunfire detected last year at their address and remind them of the dangers of celebratory gunfire.  If your agency has experienced one of the tragedies, consider the use of that event as an example.

4. Enforce a “No Tolerance” Policy in Your Community:  Be firm with your residents and describe the unfortunate criminal consequences of celebratory gunfire.  ShotSpotter recommends a “no tolerance” policy on this activity and aggressive prosecution of the case.  Advise residents that the agency will be watching this year.  It is well understood that agencies do not actually have the manpower to watch every house on the list. It is our belief, as well as the agencies that have used this strategy, that just the thought that the agency might be watching them plays a large part in reducing the likelihood of the person engaging in the celebratory gunfire.

5. Release a Media Alert – Get the Word Out!: ShotSpotter has many tools to help you get the word out about illegal celebratory gunfire. Use our 4th of July Media template to help describe the dangers of celebratory gunfire in communities and provide best practices. Make sure to connect with your community leaders and let them know that you will be taking an active role in using ShotSpotter to catch and prosecute offenders.

6. Use Social Media to Reach your Community:  July 4th is a time of celebration, food and parties. Many community members may be on social media sharing news about gatherings. Don’t forget to use your PD social channels to get the word out about illegal celebratory gunfire and make sure to point your residents to best practices to ensure their safety this holiday.

For more celebratory gunfire reduction tools, go to our ShotSpotter Celebratory Gunfire Reduction Resource kit.

The post Help Protect Your Community Against July 4th Illegal Celebratory Gunfire appeared first on ShotSpotter.

Billy Beane's journey led him to look beyond the obvious (but potentially misleading) standard statistics of Batting Average and Runs Batted In (RBIs) as primary indicators of a player’s impact on team success. While it is very true that these statistics are usually aligned with player price, Bean’s team focused on the under-appreciated statistic: on-base-percentage, or OBP, that correlates to player effectiveness.  Many of these players were undervalued and therefore more affordable for the budget-constrained Oakland A's.  As it turns out in the movie (and the better book), the not well understood or used OBP was an even better indicator for team success, e.g. wins.  This overlooked and nuanced statistic, while not particularly sexy and easily observable to most baseball people, was literally a game-changer for the A’s.

After the movie, my wife commented first on what an amazing Academy Award winning performance Brad Pitt always gives (whatever) and then how the story parallels the work we do at ShotSpotter. 

“Oh really?”, I gamely said, “How so?” 

“Well you always talk about how frustrated you are with people's obsession with the obvious statistic – the number of arrests made based on a ShotSpotter alert.  Meanwhile, you are always talking about the number of times a ShotSpotter alert simply-but consistently-gets an officer to the scene of a shooting event.  That's kinda like OBP right?”. 

Out of the mouth of my BAE..…

My amazing wife has hit the nail on the head.  Like winning baseball games sustainable gun violence reduction does not come from high-profile arrests like your occasional home run.  It comes from unheralded but consistent prevention focused deterrence strategies and overall violence de-normalization.  In large part, the conventional approach to reducing violence has focused on arrests and closing cases as they are both easily observable and sexy (just like batting averages and RBIs) but may have little impact on actual violence prevention. 

The definition of normalized gun violence is when gunfire is rampant and persistent; residents don't call 911 and therefore receive no police response.  In this environment, it is difficult to reduce and prevent gun violence since there is little to no deterrent.  And worse, it is for all intents and purposes accepted as normal until there is a homicide which then is further rationalized as gang on gang violence, ignoring the thousands of innocent people, often children who live in constant fear of becoming collateral damage.

Our view is that when police show up quickly and precisely to every single gunfire event it sends a powerful signal to those otherwise tormented residents.   It says that these criminal events are being taken seriously and treated as an exceptional event which they in fact represent.  This leads to increased law enforcement legitimacy in the eyes of the community and increases collaboration and engagement.  Each time the police show up to a gunfire incident, whether or not they make an arrest, they increase their OBP.  These small but cumulatively powerful steps are what targeted deterrence and prevention look like and results in sustainable collaborative Police/Community Team efforts aimed at gun violence reduction.

So I guess that’s how I’m like Billy Beane.  But if they ever make a movie about ShotSpotter, I would prefer to be played by Denzel Washington.  I bet Rebecca would want to see that movie too.

The post Let’s Money Ball Gun Violence Reduction appeared first on ShotSpotter.

How to use the NGI
We invite you to use this NGI report as a tool to better understand gunfire trends in communities, while also comparing the gun violence incident stats to other ShotSpotter monitored cities.

How the National Gunfire Index (NGI) is Compiled
The 2016 National Gunfire Index Report details a comprehensive analysis and overview of previously unknown instances of gun violence, which continues to be of value to law enforcement agencies, city planners, politicians, and the media.

• The NGI report is based on ShotSpotter cities that had ShotSpotter Flex deployed for more than 4/5 of the year.
• The 72 cities that were analyzed had a total coverage area of 305.0 square miles with a median coverage area of 3.1 square miles.

Gunfire facts included in the 2016 National Gunfire Index include:
• Total number of ShotSpotter gunfire incidents in the U.S. for 2016
• Busiest day of gunfire for total ShotSpotter published alerts
• Busiest hour of gunfire for total ShotSpotter published alerts
• Busiest day of gunfire – by City
• Busiest hour of gunfire – by City
• 2016 rate of gunfire per square mile in city areas covered by ShotSpotter (medium, median, maximum)
• Average number of rounds per reported incident by region
• Single incident with largest round of gunfire – 65 published gunfire incidents on December 3. (Note: hear the audio on our website landing page)

Gunfire Rates by Region
This year the rates of gunfire per region were as follows:

• West – 126.8
• Midwest – 380.5
• South – 224.6
• Northeast – 71.7
• Caribbean – 104.3

See the full regional map, visit: https://www.shotspotter.com/2016NGI#us-map-incidents
Review and download the 2016 NGI, from our website landing page: https://www.shotspotter.com/2016NGI
Read and review the 2016 National Gunfire Index press release here:
/press-releases/shotspotter-reports-nearly-75000-published-gunfire-incidents-in-u.s.-cities

The post ShotSpotter’s 2016 National Gunfire Index – Illegal Gunfire continues to be an issue for U.S appeared first on ShotSpotter.