Police all ears with shot-detection program

One element of Washington's program I really liked was that each officer who responds to a ShotSpotter hit, even if no evidence is found, has to write a report. So not only are the gunshots tracked and mapped back at headquarters, they are recorded in a way that makes authorities accountable.

Baltimore police don't write reports if no one is hit and no property is damaged; the events are simply listed as "discharging" - recorded in the 911 log but not easily accessible to the public.

I get many calls from people who hear gunfire. Sometimes they call police, sometimes they don't, but they often call the media wondering if we know what happened. I tried to track down one incident a few months ago in Canton, and a police spokesman was finally able to locate the dispatch and response, but it's not something that can be done for every case every day in the city.

Baltimore police have sophisticated crime-mapping programs, and the noise monitors would surely go along nicely with the surveillance cameras that already document life on so many of our streets. The information could be used to help deploy police and investigate crime, and I'm happy the city's police commissioner is considering it for Baltimore.

The system could be used to provide a more detailed and accurate picture of crime in our city - every discharge of a firearm, regardless of whether the bullet hits anything, would matter.