How To Reduce Crime By 60%

[DetroitDad]

Tested and working in Flint and Saginaw, and used in prosecutions.

http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/in...aim_to_re.html

High-tech microphones aim to record, report gunshots in Saginaw

...ShotSpotter is a specialized sonar device, triangulating the time and origin of gunshot-like sounds using 15 to 20 microphones on structures or telephone poles within a one-mile radius. The devices alert authorities "within a matter of seconds" via computer, using global positioning system navigation to point the way.
The microphones can determine the direction and speed of shooters on the move. The system can differentiate between a shotgun blast, a pistol discharge, fireworks or a car backfiring.
ShotSpotter is mobile, too. While it only covers one mile at a time, police can move the microphones as crime "hot spots" shift in the city.
"As we solve problems in one area, we can move it to another," Cliff said...

You can read more about the system at the link above. So far, it has supposedly been working beautifully, according to the local media. The microphones are hidden, and never allowed to be photographed, to prevent vandalism and criminals "shooting them out" the way they currently do to video equipment.

Keeping in mind that Saginaw has ranked right up with Detroit in gun violence;

A safer Saginaw? City records one homicide through first four months of 2010

SAGINAW — For the first four months of this year, and despite Saginaw’s violent reputation, gun violence has fallen by 61 percent over the same period five years ago.

The city has recorded only one homicide from January to April. In April, one person was struck by gunfire. The lack of violent crimes has Saginaw police officials hopeful that the trend will continue through the traditionally violent summer months...

...n the first four months of 2006, officers responded to 44 shootings — including nine that were fatal. By the start of May 2010, the number of shootings had dropped to 17, with one fatality.

While the technology is being hailed as a success, it is of course just another great tool for officers. Improved technology went hand in hand with tough decisions not to cut police officers.

[checkraisej]

Where is that being used in Flint?

[Fnemecek]

The only problem is that, thanks to the City Council, we're laying off police officers so there's no one available to respond.

[fryar]

Where is that being used in Flint?

Nice try, but you'll have to keep it holstered.

No, but they're specifically not telling, according to this article. It also says they're using federal grants for this thing.

[Meddle]

I got a better idea. Since so much crime is committed by repeat offenders, when someone is caught, hang'em in Hart Plaza. No more repeat offenders and anyone thinking of being a first offender will think twice.

[fryar]

I got a better idea. Since so much crime is committed by repeat offenders, when someone is caught, hang'em in Hart Plaza. No more repeat offenders and anyone thinking of being a first offender will think twice.

Cantcha hang em outside of Downtown? Hanging 'em in Hart Plaza would negatively impact my Riverwalk strolls.

[Russix]

Jobs and Education go along way to reduce crime too.

[Zacha341]

For those who want either...

Jobs and Education go along way to reduce crime too.

[kraig]

The only problem is that, thanks to the City Council, we're laying off police officers so there's no one available to respond.

Don't believe that lie. The Detroit police have a few hundred unfilled positions. City Council opted not to fund some of them, that's all.

Police , Fire and EMS don't have to get laid off and none of the parks need to close. Bing just needs to stop acting like a spoiled brat, man up, and run things the right way. Period.

[daddeeo]

Right and that deficit is just in our imagination too.

[Detroit Stylin]

I got a better idea. Since so much crime is committed by repeat offenders, when someone is caught, hang'em in Hart Plaza. No more repeat offenders and anyone thinking of being a first offender will think twice.

Remember that when you get caught running a red light... crime IS crime after all....

[Meddle]

No, that's a traffic infraction, not a crime against a person or their property. Now if you hit and kill someone running that light ....

[Bearinabox]

No, that's a traffic infraction, not a crime against a person or their property. Now if you hit and kill someone running that light ....

...then you should be strung up in Hart Plaza? I guess you're entitled to your opinion, just as I'm entitled to breathe a sigh of relief that you will never attain any public office on that platform.

[detroitjim]

How To Reduce Crime By 60%?

That's EASY just DON'T report it!

[fryar]

I for one favor a system of random assignment by lottery, sort of like in that movie the Island, in which all, no matter how law-abiding they may be, have an equal chance of winning. Including commuters from the suburbs in the lottery would go far in fostering regionalizational sentiments in the area, and including illegal as well as legal immigrants would lend the whole affair an air of inclusiveness.
Winners could have their choice of being:
Firstly: hung in Hart Plaza,
2) flung into outer space during the fireworks so that their exploding
heads might add to the festivities, and
c. weighted down with stones and thrown in the river. If they sink, at
least we will know they weren't witches and warlocks, and are
with God now.

What do you all think? Somebody please take this seriously, and try to pick apart my arguments so I can shoot you down.

In other news, I hope the city is applying for similar federal grants, assuming they are still out there. I imagine it might potentially have some odd pockets of gun violence. Similarly, where there's a little bit of capital to allow growth and the development of positive things, some money could be invested in this technology, provided it really works. Again, it does seem to be working in Flint and Saginaw.

Like downtown, for example. Seems like more or less a square mile to me, give or take. If there's really 6,000 residents there, that's $50 a pop. Peanuts.

FWIW, I don't hate the rest of Detroit or anything. I'm probably just still reeling a little bit from this functional-if-suffering nook of Detroit's failure to look after itself, as shown by the graffiti being left up on empty buildings. But for $50, I'd buy into it.

[xphillipjrx]

I think this is used in Chicago. I recall a similar story about microphones that can triangulate a gunshot and it also mentioned how location and design are top secret.

[Jimaz]

There's a map of cities that have installed Shotspotter at Shotspotter.com. It's not really all that new. I think the last time it was mentioned here there was some doubt about whether it could operate among skyscrapers due to acoustic echoes.

Isn't Campus Martius the traditional location for gallows around here?

[Meddle]

I would have said Cadillac Square or Grand Circus Park, but I don't know if either still exist.

[Bearinabox]

I would have said Cadillac Square or Grand Circus Park, but I don't know if either still exist.

Dude, are you for real? You're starting to sound like Michigan.

[BagAJellyDonuts]

Just think, with all those microphones out there, somebody in Detroit will find a way to use them to start a record label.

[Magnatomicflux]

Just think, with all those microphones out there, somebody in Detroit will find a way to use them to start a record label.

LOL! without a doubt!

[DetroitDad]

Part of what has made this workout so well is that everyone knows they exist and move around the city, but never knows where they are.

[Tig3rzhark]

<quote>Originally Posted by Meddle
I got a better idea. Since so much crime is committed by repeat offenders, when someone is caught, hang'em in Hart Plaza. No more repeat offenders and anyone thinking of being a first offender will think twice.</quote>

I guess someone forgot that the state of Michigan abolished the death penalty a long time ago in this state.

Even if we had it, it probably wouldn't deter those that feel that they have nothing to lose around here.

[Meddle]

Part of what has made this workout so well is that everyone knows they exist and move around the city, but never knows where they are.

And part of what would make it useless is the amount of gunfire in certain areas. No one would know which shots are directed at someone and which are into the ground or air. Or which are shooting a wild pheasant for dinner.

Also, once the bangers get wind of it, they'll send one or two punks in one direction to cap off a few rounds, while the rest go in another direction to do their business.

I guess someone forgot that the state of Michigan abolished the death penalty a long time ago in this state.

Laws can be changed.

[Lowell]

This thread and subject line is sounding like a combination of that old joke. "Lose ten pounds of ugly fat quick! Cut off your head."

Technologies can only help up to a certain point. To deploy, manage and tie into the dispatch system for a city as large as Detroit has to be great expense. Bullets travel up to 700 MPH, police cars in a city can average 50 with sirens if lucky. As other point out, it is nice information to have but if there is no response or tardy response it becomes like the weather, everybody talking about it nobody doing anything about it.

Would the same amount of money spent in, say, police / community relations bring better results?