Erica Grieder: ShotSpotter hasn’t proved it's effective at fighting crime? So why are Houston leaders spending $3.5M to expand the program?

Houstonians are concerned about violent crime, which is on the rise in this and most other major American cities. The members of our city council are aware of that, and know that they need to act accordingly. That’s one takeaway from the council’s nearly unanimous vote last week to expand the ShotSpotter gunfire detection program in Houston, at a cost of $3.5 million over the next five years. But did city council accomplish anything with this vote, other than sending a rather expensive message? One could be forgiven for wondering, given that city council members themselves seemed less than enthusiastic about the program. “It is one tool in the toolbox requested by Houston police,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner, arguing in favor of ShotSpotter’s expansion. “We need to throw all we have at crime right now,” said Councilmember Abbie Kamin of District C, pointing out that the program could yield data that will helpfully guide future decision-making.

“I'm going to hold my nose and vote in favor of this,” said at-large Councilmember Mike Knox, after expressing qualms about doing so. ShotSpotter has been used in a small area of south Houston as part of a pilot program since 2020. Houston Police credit it with helping them make 54 arrests between December 2020 and September 2021, leading to 60 charges. That’s out of 2,330 alerts that ShotSpotter technicians determined were gunfire and relayed to HPD during this period. Doug Griffith, the president of the Houston Police Officers Union, describes the program as “a good tool” that enables police to arrive at a scene and render aid more quickly than a traditional dispatch call would. “What happens is, when shots are fired — and it’s very accurate, it can detect between gunfire and fireworks, for the most part — the officers would get an alert on their phone within probably 15 to 30 seconds,” he told me. The program got a real workout on New Year’s Eve, Griffith added, when many Houstonians heard the traditional Texas serenade of fireworks and celebratory gunfire as well as non-celebratory gunfire and other forms of cacophony. As an officer on patrol that evening, he saw ShotSpotter’s utility in real time, as his phone kept pinging.