NYPD’s Shot Spotter's Gunshot Sensors Lay Out City’s Surging Shooting Problem

 

By Larry Celona and Aaron Feis                                                July 27, 2020 | 1:59pm

A massive surge in activations of the NYPD’s ShotSpotter gunfire detection system shows that the level of gunplay in New York is even more serious than previously thought, according to department data and police sources.

Through July 21, the high-tech system had been set off 4,892 times citywide, according to NYPD figures — a  80.8-percent increase from the 2,705 activations through the same date last year.

When zeroing in on the warm-weather months, the difference becomes even more stark.

ShotSpotter was triggered 2,170 times between June 1 and July 21, a sky-high 141.1-percent hike from the 900 tallied in the period in 2019.

The rise in ShotSpotter detections coincides with a pronounced spike in gun violence that has plagued the five boroughs for most of 2020, but particularly since the mercury started to rise.

Through July 19, 854 people had been struck by gunfire in 698 shooting incidents across the city, yearly increases of 77.5 and 68.6 percent, according to NYPD data.

But the ShotSpotter figures suggest that those incidents are just the tip of the iceberg, with gunplay in which no one was struck increasingly commonplace in the city.

While the system can occasionally return false positives from other loud noises such as cars backfiring or fireworks — complaints of which have also soared since June — it is seen as 90-percent accurate, sources said.

Assuming that even 15-percent of all activations are false positives, that still translates to about 4,150 detected gunshots this year, and 1,850 since June 1.

“This shows a significant increase in shots being fired in the street,” one Brooklyn detective told The Post. “We could easily have many more victims.

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“The people arrested tell us they know cops won’t stop them, so everybody is carrying a gun.”

Shootings have particularly surged since June 15 when NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea disbanded the gun-hunting anti-crime unit over concerns about their involvement in a number of notorious, high-profile incidents.

The move has drawn criticism even from within the department’s upper ranks and, when combined with reform initiatives that restrict cops’ ability to do their jobs, has emboldened criminals to roam the streets armed to the teeth, sources said.

“There are a lot more guns out there than the politicians realize,” said one Brooklyn supervisor. “More importantly, the shooters are not afraid of carrying them because the cops won’t stop them.
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