The Danger Of Surveillance Technology To Communities Of Color Needs To Be Closely Examined
The Biden Administration's recent initiative to address the rise in gun violence nationwide not only approves the use of the America Rescue Plan funds to hire more police officers, but to purchase and use technology as well. This creates a potentially dangerous situation for Black and Brown communities.
Relatedly, in the coming weeks, the Grand Rapids Police Department will move forward with surveillance technology, including the use of ShotSpotter and unmanned drones.
The City of Grand Rapids has already seen the deployment of helicopters across the Third Ward – in the urban core communities of color.
Let's hold on.
The danger of surveillance technology to communities of color needs to be addressed and closely examined.
Considering ShotSpotter's trend of encouraging over policing in communities of color instead of discouraging gun violence and solving gunrelated crimes, is it worth the cost?
Let's look at the facts.
ShotSpotter attempts to provide police with a precise location of potential gunfire by using sensors mounted on rooftops or light poles to triangulate the sound of gunshots.
Within one minute, the sensor records one second of audio before and after the potential gunshot and sends the audio to the ShotSpotter headquarters for notification to a 911 dispatcher. The dispatcher deploys police officers with a priority level synonymous with a shots-fired 911 call.
ShotSpotter sensors tend to be placed in communities of color and ultimately increase the type of police interactions which make those communities more vulnerable to discriminatory policing tactics and police brutality.
Additionally, there have been several occasions where police officers received a false alarm that resulted in unnecessary violent altercations with residents of color. The technology has frequently triggered false alarms and sent police to the wrong location.
Chicago
The Chicago Police Department's use of ShotSpotter played a significant role in the tragic death of 13-year-old Adam Toledo, who was shot while complying with an officer's command.
The only information that ShotSpotter provided to the arriving officers was that alleged gunshots had been fired in a specific location. This created the probable use of deadly force by the police resulting in the unnecessary death of Adam Toledo.
New York
New York City has an ongoing $28 million five-year contract with ShotSpotter through 2021 but saw an average 30% increase in homicides in 2020, which highlights the technology's ineffectiveness in reducing gun violence.
ShotSpotter is currently being sued in Rochester, NY after a false alarm resulted in a police officer shooting Silvon Simmons, a Black man in 2016.
Simmons was charged with shooting at police and spent 18 months in jail until he was acquitted of all charges. He sued ShotSpotter on the basis of fabrication of evidence – whereas helicopter sounds were re-classified as gunshots, at the request of police.
New Jersey
75% of the gunshot alerts in Newark, New Jersey were false alarms, according to a 2013 investigation on the effectiveness of ShotSpotter.
Ohio
In Columbus, Ohio in 2019, police responded to a ShotSpotter false alarm resulting in an officer punching one of the Black residents in the throat and arresting him with obstructing official business. The charges were later dropped.
Unsurprisingly, Columbus' Mayor and City Attorney recently requested the U.S. Department of Justice to initiate a pattern-or-practice investigation of its police department.
In Grand Rapids, looking ahead, a huge concern is that the interactions are also leading to the arrest and prosecution of people of color in situations that do not even include gun violence.
This is especially concerning since the Grand Rapids Police Department has a history of racially profiling and using excessive force.
This spring, a traffic stop led to an officer punching a 25-year-old Black man several times in the face and head. Additionally, two Black male teenagers were stopped and held at gunpoint by police because of mistaken identity.
The Grand Rapids Police Department accounts for more than 35% of General Fund expenditures in the 2022 proposed budget of $63 million.
Compare that to the $2 million slated to be invested into the Third Ward, a predominantly Black and Brown community.
This is a direct contradiction to the City's supposed commitment to equity, as stated in the 2021- 2022 Strategic Plan.
Similar to Detroit, Grand Rapids' Administrative Policy on Acquisition and Use of Surveillance Equipment and Surveillance Services should be amended to create mandatory community processes like a Community Advisory Committee, a publicly accessible surveillance impact report, and public hearings before the City Commission, including written and oral testimonies and a month-long public comment period.
These reforms will empower community members to play a significant role in the decisionmaking process and address concerns related to ShotSpotter and other surveillance technologies. These decisions should not be rushed and one-sided.
Ultimately, the key to solving gun violence in communities of color is to strengthen the relationship between police and communities.
Not only does ShotSpotter fail to accomplish this important goal, it increases the likelihood of the use of deadly force, lacks substantive community involvement, and therefore, is not a solution to gun violence.
Cle Jackson, President, The Grand Rapids Branch, NAACP, contributed to this op-ed. Carlton T. Mayers, II, Esq. is a national policing reform expert and the Founder and Head Consultant of Mayers Strategic Solutions, LLC, which advances Community Empowerment-centered policing reform (trademark symbol goes above the word "reform") through the C.A.T. Method. He directed NAACP National Office's Criminal Justice Reform program and co-authored NAACP's Born Suspect: Stopand- Frisk Abuses & the Continued Fight To End Racial Profiling In America report. He was also a Policy Counsel for the Policing Reform Campaign at NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. and worked on the consent decrees in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland. He is currently the Policing Reform Advisor for NAACP Grand Rapids Branch.
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