The Savannah City Council voted unanimously Thursday to expand its network of ShotSpotter acoustic sensors meant to help police officers quickly pinpoint the precise location of gunfire, despite the technology coming under criticism from some police reform advocates.
The modified contract with ShotSpotter Inc. nearly doubles the city’s coverage from its current 4 square miles to 7 1/2 square miles. The city will now be spending about $520,000 annually on the technology, according to the Savannah Police Department.
“This is all about holding illegal gunfire accountable, wherever it happens,” Alderman Nick Palumbo said during the City Council meeting. “And that’s going to be very difficult for a technology as expensive as this one, but we’re stepping up to the plate to do that.”
Some critics say that kind of money would be better spent elsewhere: the police reform organization Campaign Zero this month launched a nationwide campaign urging cities to stop using the proprietary technology, saying that the company’s claims of effectiveness are not substantiated by independent testing.
Campaign Zero points to a 2021 peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Urban Health that found ShotSpotter has no significant impact on firearm-related homicides or arrest outcomes.