The story
ShotSpotter was founded by Robert Showen in the 1990s while he was working for SRI International. He created a company in 1996 and tested prototypes in Redwood City, California. Its early success was described by Wired as being "due to good PR, not good technology." James Beldock joined as CEO in 2003 as a "turnaround specialist"; in 2005 the company merged with Centurist Systems, which was creating acoustic sniper location systems for the military; Centurist held a "deceptively simple patent" for the location algorithm. Centurist's CEO, Scott Manderville, became chairman of the board.
As of 2021, the acoustic locator technology was installed in 125 cities and 14 campuses, covering 911 square miles. The locators are typically installed at 20–25 sensors per square mile and primarily connected via 4G networks (mostly AT&T and Verizon). In 2020, Chicago was 18% of the company's revenue, and New York City was 15%.
Ralph Clark was named CEO of ShotSpotter in 2010. The company went public in June 2017. The company authorized a stock buyback program in 2019 and bought back $8.3 million by the end of 2020.
The company's gross revenues were $58.2 million in 2021 (increased coverage by 49 square miles and 10 cities), up from $45.7 million in 2020 and from $40.8 million in 2019 (increased coverage by 82 square miles and 6 cities). The company had a net loss of $4.4 million in 2021, in part from nonrenewal of contracts and increases in legal costs, PR from Trident DMG, and lobbying.
Toronto, Ontario has declined to use the technology, as the Ministry of the Solicitor General (Ontario) believes it violates Section 8 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The company previously provided indoor gunfire locator technology, but discontinued it in 2018. ShotSpotter illegally lobbied the city of Oakland, California in 2014 and received a $5000 fine.
In April 2023, the company rebranded to SoundThinking to better represent "holistic approach to gun violence", but retained the ShotSpotter product name.
In an August 2023 earnings call, the CEO of SoundThinking announced that the company had begun the process of absorbing parts (including the "engineering team") of Geolitica, formerly known as PredPol. The company spent nearly $24 million in sales and marketing in 2023.
Studies
A June 2021 study in the Journal of Experimental Criminology stated the system "may be of little benefit to police agencies with a pre-existing high call volume. Our results indicate no reductions in serious violent crimes, yet [ShotSpotter] increases demands on police resources." An October 2021 paper in the Journal of Urban Health, studying the longitudinal effects of ShotSpotter over a 17 year period, found "implementing ShotSpotter technology has no significant impact on firearm-related homicides or arrest outcomes. Policy solutions may represent a more cost-effective measure to reduce urban firearm violence."
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In 2021 the NYU School of Law Policing Project published "Measuring the effects of ShotSpotter on Gunfire in St. Louis County, Mo", a paper which indicated a significant drop in gun violence in the area; however, the paper also discloses that ShotSpotter "has provided the Policing Project with unrestricted funding".
In July 2023, a Houston Chronicle investigation showed that ShotSpotter calls resulted in lower incident report rates and longer police response times. Over 80% of ShotSpotter alerts were false positives or otherwise useless. The almost 5500 alerts led to 99 arrests and 126 charges, about half of which were misdemeanors. A disproportionate number of residents in coverage areas are people of color. The Houston Police Department cast the system as a way to invest in historically marginalized areas. In May 2024, Houston mayor John Whitmire said "I think it's a gimmick. A feel-good program. Most law enforcement officers do not support ShotSpotter. I don't support it." The city's contract goes through 2027, but Whitmire wants to terminate it early.
A 2024 Northeastern University study showed that ShotSpotter increased detection of gunfire, but did not result in a reduction of gun violence or an increase in gunshot crime case clearance. Ohio State University criminal justice professor Terrance Hinton described it as "more of a Band-Aid... it doesn't address the root cause of gun violence".
Jennifer Doleac told Voice of San Diego that ShotSpotter "resisted attempts (by me and others) to do a rigorous evaluation of its impacts", noting "they've clearly found that they can get cities to sign their contracts without such evidence."
A 2024 audit from the New York City Comptroller found that during the month of June 2023 New York City Police Department responded to 940 alerts, 82% could not confirm a shot was fired, and 5% were unfounded or a false positive. It also stated that NYPD was over-representing the benefits of the system in reducing response times. Comptroller Brad Lander said "NYPD is wasting precious time and money on this technology and needs to do a better job managing its resources. Chasing down car backfires and construction noise does not make us safer." Activist and early supporter of the ShotSpotter installation Jumaane Williams agreed it wasn't working, stating "More concerning is a response to the report. Even the recommendations that say, 'let's try to make it better,' the most material of the recommendations were outright rejected by this administration."
Opposition
In May 2024, three senators and a representative wrote a letter requesting the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General open an investigation into ShotSpotter for its accuracy and racial bias in policing.
Campaign Zero has a project called #CancelShotSpotter that addresses claims made by the company versus studies. In 2025 the campaign put mobile billboards in Little Rock, Arkansas to oppose renewing a ShotSpotter contract stating "ShotSpotter admits it doesn't prevent crime. What are your tax dollars paying for?" and "ShotSpotter cannot tell the difference between a popped balloon, fireworks or gunshots." It has also placed advertisements in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 2024.
From Wikipedia’s article on SoundThinking, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6