Elmira City Council to vote on gunshot detection software

The Elmira City Council will vote on purchasing gunshot detection software during its Monday evening meeting at City Hall.

The software will analyze recordings from 40 microphones placed on existing light poles throughout the city to identify gunfire. It is sold by SHI International Corporation, a New Jersey-based IT company.

The software will cost the city $64,615.38 for a two-year service subscription. The funding comes from a state Law Enforcement Technology (LETECH) grantgiven to the Elmira Police Department this year.

Elmira Police Chief Kristen Thorne said the microphones will capture the sound within 90 feet of the noise and the software will alert the police department as to whether it is a gunshot or something else, such as fireworks. However, the microphones cannot pick up individual conversations, according to Thorne.

Thorne said the police department will track the data’s usefulness in lowering the city’s gun violence

“I look at it as (a), ‘Hey, we’re going to try this,’” said Thorne. “If it doesn’t work, (if) it creates problems, then we won’t renew any type of subscription to it or a contract with it when it comes down to it. So that’s the way I look at it. So if the data that it’s showing isn’t worthwhile, then why would we keep it?“

It is unclear where exactly in the city the microphones will be placed. Thorne declined to provide geographic information.

“I’m just hoping that it helps stop some of the gun violence that’s going on in the city of Elmira,” said Thorne. “I mean, that is the ultimate goal, (to) make the city a safer place.”

WSKG reached out to the city councilmembers about the surveillance program and heard back from two.

Nanette Moss, who represents the Sixth District, said the program provides “a valuable tool” for law enforcement and will allow police to respond to shootings faster. Moss also said she had not heard anything from her constituents about whether they are in favor of or against the program.

Fourth District councilmember Gary Brinn said in an email to WSKG that he supports the system but says he worries about what he describes as the “soaring cost of law enforcement and technology.”

Daniel Schwarz, senior privacy and technology strategist for the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), said in an email to WSKG that “protecting communities against gun violence is paramount.” But, he added, with this type of technology “armed police are constantly running to unfounded, unconfirmed shootings—wasting people’s money and increasing police presence in neighborhoods for no reason.”

Schwarz went on to say that “the Elmira (City) Council should consider how this money could be better used for services actually proven to increase public safety and community relations.”

The NYCLU suggests on its website that municipalities invest in communities with more housing, healthcare and public education while decreasing police funding and presence, demilitarize the police, end mass surveillance programs and increase school counselors not school resource officers.

The city has also purchased radios for the entire police force and robots for the department’s SWAT team with funds from the LETECH grant this year.