Acoustic Gunshot-Detection: We've Heard it Before

The Globe graphic looked oddly familiar. The triangulation of gunshot audio is a comfortable concept, and not some wacky space-age technology we'd never heard about. Where do we turn? Google. We found today's report along with one from the Globe dated February 24, 2006. To give them credit the Globe did modify the graphic from last year, the info is a little different and reporting is largely new info.

It is no secret that Boston has been hearing more gunshots in the last few years – with more homicides recorded as a result. After the record year in 2005 racking up 75 homicides we thought that action was going to be swift to correct the problem. Now, nearly 11 months after the media reported last February on the ShotSpotter technology and how it might benefit the city in cracking down on gun violence, the updated report shows that we're still not there.

City Councilors and the Mayor are working together with the police department to find the $1.5 mil it would cost to install the system in a five or six mile area with the highest gunshot density. The $1.5 million figure has come about in the recent proposal, and the plan is more concrete than the exploration urged last February – but it's still only a drop in the bucket that is the city's $2 billion budget. The technology, as reported earlier, would allow police to pinpoint the location of a gunshot within seconds and dispatch officers to that location. The process is still reactive crime fighting, but if it works it might work as a deterrent in order to prevent crime in the city.

The Globe used the graphic here twice now to illustrate the ShotSpotter story, we'll use it once here under 'fair use' because we're commenting on that very image.