Somerville considers abandoning gunfire-detecting technology

does it make the city safer or more dangerous officials in Somerville they're debating getting rid of technology used to detect gunfire in certain neighborhoods throughout the community and new at 11 or Kirsten glaven is taking a closer look at the [Applause] debate when gunfire rings out some communities have technology to capture that sound and alert police but in Somerville the city council is now considering getting rid of that software due to concerns of inaccuracy and civil rights violatio

ns for me that it's quite concerning when we have uh people of color who are more likely to be overp policed put in a situation where there's a technology that could alert the Police to go there when it shouldn't Somerville City councelor Willie Burnley Jr introducing an order to discuss the effectiveness and placement of the shot spotter technology recently rebranded to sound thinking he says in Somerville roughly 35 sensors have all been placed primarily in communities of color and as far as S

omerville goes it seems to be exclusively in those communities uh including near the one we're in right now Burnley Jr also pointing to an incident in Chicago where police responded to an alert and shot at a teen who instead was playing with fireworks when it comes to situations in which we are uh stoking fear in our police officers so and then sending them into the community um I think we need to be really hesitant to rely on a technology with that kind of track record the ACLU also calling for

Somerville to stop using the technology sending this letter last week calling shot spotter unreliable ineffective and dangerous sound thinking Inc refuting all of these claims saying studies show 911 calls aren't reliable when only 20% of incidents in violent neighborhoods are reported the company adds black boys and young men are disproportionately affected by gun violence and they as well as as their families and communities deeply suffer from the physical and mental impacts of gunfire they d

eserve a safe Equitable and Fast Response it could mean life or death for victims of gunfire Somerville city council now looks to speak with the police department and experts about this technology they say they also want to better inform the public about it now we did reach out to the police department for a comment tonight but did not hear back reporting in Somerville I'm Kiren glaven NBC 10 Boston