Durham City Council rejects ShotSpotter by 4-2 vote

DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- Durham City Council voted not to renew its contract with the controversial ShotSpotter technology Monday night.

The decision came a week after a Duke study found it did notify police about more shootings compared to 9-1-1 calls.

The vote was 4-2 with Mayor Leonardo Williams and Mayor Pro Tem Mark-Anthony Middleton on the side of keeping the program in place.

"If we're talking about over-policing Black and brown neighborhoods, uh hello, I'm a Black guy," Williams said.

He said the people he had talked to were in favor of keeping the program. He also cited a recent survey about quality of life in Durham which noted that people were asking for more police protection.

"Of course, you're going to get a lot of police response in these neighborhoods if the gunshots are happening in these neighborhoods and that's just a fact," Williams said.

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Durham Police Chief Patrice Andrews said the program was another tool for her investigators but one year wasn't enough to know its full effect.

"One more tool is better than no more tools," she said. "If we're looking at prosecution, that's something that would've taken much longer to look at."

The AI-powered gunshot detection was set up at the end of 2022 to see whether it could lower response times to calls. The Duke study concluded last week it did but did not show evidence it brought down gun violence overall.

ShotSpotter, which has now rebranded as Sound Thinking, did not pick up every instance of gun violence. It failed to pick up eight shootings with one or more victims.

Of the 29 incidents that resulted in arrests, only seven happened because of a ShotSpotter notification.