OPINION: Smoke Alarms and Gunshot Detection—Saving Lives

By Ralph Clark

Imagine, for a moment, that you live in a community with an elevated risk of fire.  And despite interventions—such as updating building codes and conducting regular building inspections—fire incidents, while mitigated, persist.  For this reason, the local city government mandates every structure must install and maintain a smoke alarm, even to the point where the city subsidizes smoke alarms for low-income tenants. 

Do the smoke alarms prevent fires from starting? No. Do they alter the dryness of the climate or change the composition of the buildings’ materials to make it less likely that a fire will start?  Also, no. But, if there is a fire, the smoke alarms immediately alert the local fire department so that firefighters can respond to the scene and hopefully prevent further damage, injury, and loss of life.

This is precisely the role of ShotSpotter.  

Much like a smoke alarm, ShotSpotter is a critical tool that helps mitigate harm by detecting gunfire and then alerting first responders with a precise location within 60 seconds. Just as smoke alarms don’t prevent fires—but do play a crucial role in limiting property damage and loss of life by ensuring a swift response—ShotSpotter plays a similar role as it relates to gun violence.

A smoke alarm’s purpose is to alert occupants and authorities to a potential fire quickly, so emergency services can intervene before the situation worsens—saving lives and property. In the same way, ShotSpotter provides a virtually immediate alert to gunfire, with a precise location of the incident. This reduces the time it takes first responders to arrive on scene, increases the chances of collecting forensic evidence, and, more importantly, helps save lives by increasing the speed with which medical aid is administered to gunshot victims.

Additionally, ShotSpotter helps enhance neighborhood safety and peace of mind by signaling that incidents of gunfire won’t go unnoticed, just as the presence of a smoke alarm reassures residents that their safety matters and fires will be detected before they become catastrophic.  And although neither technology prevents the event itself, both are invaluable in minimizing damage and ensuring a timely, effective response that can protect communities and their residents.

Like smoke alarms, ShotSpotter is not designed to prevent gunfire, though some independent research has documented crime reduction in some locations where ShotSpotter is deployed. ShotSpotter’s main role is in reducing harm. Just like it would be negligent and unsafe to disable smoke alarms within a community at an elevated risk of fires, it is irresponsible and dangerous to disable ShotSpotter in Chicago, where gun violence is plaguing the city’s most at-risk neighborhoods.  

ShotSpotter works. ShotSpotter enables rapid response. ShotSpotter saves lives. Turn gunshot detection back on in Chicago.

Ralph Clark is the President and CEO of SoundThinking, Inc.

The opinions expressed in this column are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of the Chicago Defender. 

 

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