Wyden, Colleagues Urge DHS to Investigate Federal Funding of ShotSpotter Gunshot Detection System
Lawmakers’ letter: “Several recent reports have cast substantial doubt on the accuracy and effectiveness of the ‘ShotSpotter’ gunshot detection system and have raised serious questions about its contribution to unjustified surveillance and over-policing of Black, Brown, and Latino communities”
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said today he and three congressional colleagues are urging the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General to investigate the department’s grant funding spent on the ShotSpotter acoustic gunshot detection system, including whether the use of ShotSpotter led to civil rights violations.
ShotSpotter purportedly lets law enforcement accurately detect and locate gunshot incidents. According to the manufacturer, ShotSpotter uses various acoustic sensors connected to its cloud-based application, which captures the precise time and audio associated with sounds that may represent gunfire. Despite ShotSpotter’s claims of a high aggregate accuracy rate, recent reporting shows high error rates and the over-deployment of sensors in predominantly Black and Latino communities. Studies have also shown that biased deployment of the system can perpetuate the over-policing and unjustified surveillance of communities of color, exposing residents to police interrogations, confrontations, and potentially dangerous situations.
In the letter to Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari, Wyden and the other three lawmakers wrote, “Several recent reports have cast substantial doubt on the accuracy and effectiveness of the ‘ShotSpotter’ gunshot detection system and have raised serious questions about its contribution to unjustified surveillance and over-policing of Black, Brown, and Latino communities ... We request that the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigate DHS’s spending of taxpayer dollars on ShotSpotter, including potential violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits recipients of federal financial assistance from discriminating based on race, color, and national origin.”
Wyden has led Congressional oversight of untested surveillance and predictive policing technology by law-enforcement agencies, and pressed the Justice Department to end federal funding of technology that is not proven to reduce crime, and have a disproportionate impact on minority communities.
In addition to Wyden, the letter was signed by U.S. Sens. Edward J. Markey and Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, all D-Mass.
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