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from the better-way-to-find-dalmations-and-leopards? dept.
For years, gunshot detection has been bought, and criticized, by cities nationwide.
With the president at Camp David for most of the weekend, the United States Secret Service decided that now would be a good time to fire off a few live rounds on the grounds of the White House—so it can evaluate a gunshot-detection technology known as ShotSpotter.
The mounted microphone and computer system is designed to detect gunshots via their audio signature and send prompt alerts to local authorities.
In a series of tweets on Saturday morning, the CEO of ShotSpotter, Ralph Clark, said that 90 cities and 10 university campuses currently use it, including recent additions in Louisville, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio. The system has been in use by the Metropolitan Police Department—which serves the city of Washington, DC—for many years.
However, the company has sometimes been criticized for being overly expensive, not particularly effective, and potentially invasive of people’s privacy.
Recently, San Antonio, Texas, decided that, after using the service for a year, ShotSpotter was no longer worth the price tag—over $500,000, which includes the cost of the service plus officer overtime. During the year that it was in use, the city only arrested four people as a result of the gunshot detection setup, or $136,500 per arrest, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
-- submitted from IRC
[How many shots could a ShotSpotter spot, if a ShotSpotter could spot shots? source --Ed.]
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @07:19AM
The system detected a shot fired from North Korea, flying just past Japan's head. Witnesses say the target was actually those obstructing Lockheed Martin's pocket book.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Tuesday August 29 2017, @08:27AM (2 children)
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @08:47AM (1 child)
This is a government project.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Tuesday August 29 2017, @12:32PM
Really? [shotspotter.com]
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday August 29 2017, @09:33AM (4 children)
So they are testing a system to detect gun fire at the White House. Guess the Secret Service is starting to get mighty worried that someone is going to try and take more then verbal shots at POTUS. They are always worried about that naturally but I guess more so now then before.
Isn't it a bit weird tho that the city of Washington DC already has the system but the White house for some reason isn't covered? Yeah we are covering most of the city but we left a giant dark zone there around 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I guess the SS doesn't trust the ordinary police force to monitor the system for them or something.
Regarding the San Antonio testing and decline of service. That seems like a really odd metric for evaluating the system. How many people was arrested as a result of the system. Won't that only then be the idiots that fire a gun and then remain at the scene for a few minutes until the cops show up. In a more general setting isn't the system just supposed to alert the police that there is gunfire so they should send someone, something has happened - go check it out. It would be like crying about fire alarms not preventing fire but just alerting you (and the FD) that there is a fire.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @12:58PM (3 children)
"Isn't it a bit weird tho that the city of Washington DC already has the system but the White house for some reason isn't covered?"
Maybe it finally got cheap enough to make it easy.
The h/w should be simple, RasPi, microphone, gps module, and a way to phone home.
The s/w might be more interesting. You have to pick out the shots , then do the geometry.
Not sure what the signature of a gunshot looks like.
You should have both the initial report, and perhaps a supersonic bullet flyby to work with.
Multipath could be interesting. You could just take the leading edge, or use the the rest of further localize the source.
For $500k of my tax money, hopefully these folks are really good at this.
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Tuesday August 29 2017, @02:10PM (1 child)
According to my amateur audio engineering a gun shot should be extremely close to an impulse which is well known.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @06:39PM
Even more similar would be firecrackers.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday August 30 2017, @02:45AM
Maybe it's because the Secret Service know more about its effectiveness than Washington bureaucrats. The primary purpose of this thing is as a deterrent, whether you switch it on or not. It's actual effectiveness is pretty marginal, so the economically most sensible way to deploy it would be to buy it, publicise it widely, install it very obviously, and then never bother paying for further upkeep or a license. In the case of the S-S, their existing security measures are probably already far better than Shotguesser, so there's no need for the security theatre of having it.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @03:16PM (1 child)
Ok, you take a standard box of matches. Cut the striker surface off one side, and fold it so it fits around the match-heads inside the tray. Put the tray back in whats left of the box. Get some cellotape. Start wrapping the box. You start at one edge, and wrap continuously so there is an overlap of about half the width off the tape. Fold the overlaps down on the edges, and then wrap around the box. The goal is to make the box airtight, with at least two layers of cellotape at any point. Throw it at the ground, or a wall or something. The matches will flare and the box swell up until the tape bursts. Cellotape is surprisingly strong, and when it does let go it fails completely. The result is a remarkably good imitation of a shotgun.
(Also excellent if you like to ride a bike but don't like getting chased by dogs.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @10:49PM
Seriously? Carry a poor-man's grenade, with no safety pin, on your person? WTF is wrong with you?
Just carry a gun. I recommend a .32 or .22 magnum revolver, loaded with whatever combination of blanks and live cartridges seems right to you. (No blanks for me -- if I need a warning shot, I'll aim at the ground.) If you've got laws preventing you from carrying a modern gun, blank-firing guns may be a workaround, antique and/or muzzle-loading guns may be another.
The great thing about guns is, they're designed to be dangerous when needed, so you don't have to defeat the safety features that protect you the rest of the time. A box of matches is designed to be safe (e.g. striking surface on outside), and by defeating the safeties, you make it all danger, all the time.