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<ul class="summary-list"><li>A new database reveals the extensive <keyword id="6354565" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Surveillance">surveillance</keyword> network used by <keyword id="691011" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="law-enforcement">law enforcement</keyword> agencies across the US to keep an eye on citizens.</li><li><a href="https://atlasofsurveillance.org/">The Atlas of Surveillance</a>, a joint effort between the Electronic Frontier Foundation and students from the University of Nevada Reno, maps more than 5,300 cases of surveillance tech deployed by state and local police.</li><li>Law enforcement has grown increasingly reliant on tools like facial recognition software, AI-powered video analysis, and license plate readers, enriching the companies behind them in the process.</li><li>But recent protests against <keyword id="53374" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Police-Brutality">police brutality</keyword> have fueled renewed criticism of surveillance tech and its potential civil-rights violations and bias against people of color.</li></ul>Despite Americans' reverence for freedom and liberty, it's virtually impossible for even law-abiding citizens to avoid being constantly watched by their government. And law enforcement agencies, aided by newer and more advanced technologies, are keeping a closer eye on them than ever before.There are 50 million security cameras in the US — one for every six people, more per capita than in China — according to <a href="https://www.precisesecurity.com/articles/Top-10-Countries-by-Number-of-CCTV-Cameras">Precise Security</a>. A government watchdog found the FBI's facial recognition database contains more than <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/700/699489.pdf">641 million images</a>. Axon Enterprise, the nation's largest supplier of <keyword id="2621508" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="body-cameras">body cameras</keyword>, recently told investors that the company is eyeing an <a href="https://investor.axon.com/home/default.aspx">$11 billion market</a>.And in a recent <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6986843-CBP-privacy-assessment.html">privacy assessment</a>, the US Customs and Border Protection acknowledged that it's "unrealistic" for Americans to avoid being tracked by its network of license plate readers.That's especially true when the opaque and often invisible nature of surveillance technology makes it difficult for Americans to understand when and how extensively they're being monitored.But a new, first-of-its-kind project aims to help demystify the government's reach. The <a href="https://atlasofsurveillance.org/search?page=215">Atlas of Surveillance</a>, a crowdsourced database compiled by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and hundreds of students from the University of Nevada Reno, uses publicly available information to map state and local law enforcement agencies' use of surveillance technologies across the US.Previously, researchers and journalists have typically focused on identifying either which technologies are used by a specific agency like the <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/new-york-city-police-department-surveillance-technology">New York Police Department</a>, or which agencies are using a specific technology, such as <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/7/18/20698307/facial-recognition-technology-us-government-fight-for-the-future">facial recognition software</a>.However, EFF's database is unique in that it maps the use of 12 different tools — including facial recognition, license plate readers, body cameras, fake cellphone towers, gunshot detectors, and <keyword id="94769" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="drones">drones</keyword> — across nearly 4,000 police departments. By doing so, it paints a more comprehensive picture of at least 5,300 cases of surveillance tech being deployed nationwide."It's a little overwhelming to look at but that's because the surveillance state is overwhelming," Dave Maass, a senior researcher at EFF and visiting professor at UNR who led the project, told Business Insider.Maass said it's particularly concerning "how all of these individual technologies are converging together." At digital command hubs called real-time crime centers, everything from social media posts to camera footage is analyzed live by "a sophisticated algorithm" and shared with multiple agencies in order to help them identify potential crimes and allocate resources, he said.While the database is far from complete and will be continually updated, Maass said EFF decided to release it now given the renewed <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/06/how-identify-visible-and-invisible-surveillance-protests">spotlight on surveillance technology</a> amid recent protests against police brutality. "People are protesting, they're noticing the body-worn cameras, they're noticing the strange trucks driving around with weird equipment in the back, they're noticing <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/us/politics/george-floyd-protests-surveillance.html">drones flying above</a>," Maass said. "People are starting to realize as they're out on the street and they're having more interactions with police that technology matters."Civil rights and <keyword id="6355135" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Privacy">privacy</keyword> advocates, including EFF, have been sounding alarms about surveillance technology for years. They've cited concerns like body cameras' potential <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/police-body-cameras-at-protests-raise-privacy-concerns/">chilling effects on free speech</a> at protests and a growing body of research showing that tools like facial recognition software and predicting policing algorithms <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/facial-recognition-racial-bias-federal-study-2019-12">discriminate based on race and gender</a> and <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-lapd-data-policing-20180724-story.html">exacerbate existing inequalities</a> in the criminal justice system — let alone scant evidence that these tools actually help keep communities safe.As public opinion has shifted around policing, pressure has also mounted on the companies that supply surveillance tech to address flaws in their products or <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/activist-group-targets-palantir-over-controversial-ice-raid-2019-10">cut ties with law enforcement</a> entirely. Last month, Amazon, Microsoft, and IBM bowed demands from employees and activists and agreed to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-microsoft-ibm-halt-selling-facial-recognition-to-police-2020-6">pause sales of their facial recognition tools</a> to law enforcement.

This interactive map shows you whether police departments near you are using facial recognition, drones, body cameras, and other surveillance tech

ShotSpotterShotSpotter technology is in 90 US cities, but skeptics wonder if it's actually effective at reducing gun violence.Terrell Ortiz was <a href="https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20170605/bushwick/nypd-83rd-precinct-bushwick-police-shot-killed">sitting in the passenger seat</a> of his white Nissan Altima parked in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, when a man suspected of being a rival gang member walked up to Ortiz's window, shot him multiple times, and fled.At the same moment, three rooftop microphones picked up the sounds of the shots and sent them to a computer at the New York Police Dept. and to a person in California. Together, they confirmed the noises, figured out their location, and dispatched police within minutes.Ortiz, 26, was rushed to a nearby hospital and later pronounced dead. The shooter was never found.<h2>11 feet away</h2>The technology responsible for alerting the NYPD to Ortiz's shooting is known as ShotSpotter, whose 16-year-old parent company <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-shotspotters-shares-shoot-up-in-debut-2017-6">went public</a> on June 7. In more than 90 cities across the US, including New York, microphones placed strategically around high-crime areas pick up the sounds of gunfire and alert police to the shooting's location via dots on a city map.The technology builds on existing surveillance tools, many of which are aging, grainy-video cameras that don't record sound and produce footage officers review only after a crime has been committed. ShotSpotter also sends alerts to apps on cops' phones."We've gone to the dot and found the casings 11 feet from where the dot was, according to the GPS coordinates," Capt. David Salazar of the Milwaukee Police Dept. told Business Insider. "So it's incredibly helpful. We've saved a lot of people's lives."When three microphones pick up a gunshot, ShotSpotter figures out where the sound comes from. Human analysts in the Newark, California, headquarters confirm the noise came from a gun (not a firecracker or some other source). The police can then locate the gunshot on a map and investigate the scene. The whole process happens "much faster" than dialing 911, Salazar said, though he wouldn't disclose the exact time.ShotSpotterA screen of a ShotSpotter alert.<h2>Playing 'Moneyball' with crime</h2>In theory, this allows departments to do a couple things. On the one hand, it lets them respond more quickly to isolated incidents. But it also lets them deploy more resources in areas with "serial shooters," or small clusters of criminals who make up the bulk of a given area's crime, according to ShotSpotter CEO Ralph Clark.But as Ortiz's death and his assailant's getaway highlight, the company still struggles to sell its value in concrete terms. It's up to individual departments to collect and analyze their own data, and not all agencies take as much initiative as the MPD.Some data indicate the technology still needs fine-tuning. Last year, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdrange/2016/11/17/shotspotter-alerts-police-to-lots-of-gunfire-but-produces-few-tangible-results/#5f39fd18229e">Forbes discovered</a> through a data analysis of more than two-dozen cities using the program, in 30% to 70% of cases, police found no evidence of a gunshot when they arrived.Still, Clark says the program's greatest value comes in its ability to deter people from committing gun violence in the future. In a <a href="http://www.shotspotter.com/blog/lets-money-ball-gun-violence-reduction">recent blog post</a>, he compared ShotSpotter to the story of "Moneyball," in which pro baseball teams systematically overvalue certain traits in their players. In Clark's analogy, homicides are home runs (overrated) and crime deterrence is on-base percentage (underrated)."Our view is that when police show up quickly and precisely to every single gunfire event it sends a powerful signal to those otherwise tormented residents," Clark wrote. "Each time the police show up to a gunfire incident, whether or not they make an arrest, they increase their [on-base percentage]."Thomson ReutersBullets handed in to the Seattle Police Dept. during a gun buyback.<h2>Saving lives is worth millions</h2>Clark says this approach has been effective enough for departments to renew their contracts with the company."They're getting value out of it," Clark told Business Insider. "It's aiding their investigations. It's enabling them to better serve communities by better showing up."Salazar has been using ShotSpotter in Milwaukee since 2010. Previously, his department discovered just 16% of gunshot cases led to 911 calls. He knew he needed a better way to determine where shots were coming from."You can't do something about something you don't know about," he said. "We found out we didn't know about a lot."Salazar says ShotSpotter has helped Milwaukee police save lives, but the real benefit is helping the department deploy officers when and where they're needed most. That, he says, is what made the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdrange/2016/11/17/shotspotter-struggles-to-prove-impact-as-silicon-valley-answer-to-gun-violence/#18e5d4b531cb">millions in taxpayer dollars</a> worth spending."Everybody wants to run up the hill and punch the guy in the nose who's shooting a gun off," Salazar said. "But to go there at nine in the morning, when nothing's going on, and go talk to the people in the neighborhood who have lived there for the last 15 years ... that's where you can really make a difference. That's where you can do some targeting."<h2>'Big Brother'</h2>Salazar says some may view the high costs as a waste of funds for what, to them, amounts to a toy with mere dots on a screen. But to get real value out of it, he said agencies must be willing to use the data, not just collect it. The technology alone can't know how many lives it saves.Clark of ShotSpotter says that's not how it's designed anyway."You'll never, ever hear me say ShotSpotter is solely responsible for reductions in gun violence," Clark said. "We can't make that claim. There are a lot of things that go into a successful gun-violence-abatement strategy."Residents of the New York neighborhood where Terrell Ortiz was shot expressed mixed feelings that a technology like ShotSpotter would be an effective crime-fighting tool. While Jose Rodriguez, a 46-year-old deli manager, shrugged off the sensors, calling them "a good thing," 60-year-old Felix Pizarro, who called himself the "mayor" of his block, said that neighbors who know one another and are friendly produce a safer environment than microphones on a roof."I don't like Big Brother being in all my business," Pizarro said. <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/countries-us-sells-most-weapons-arms-guns-middle-east-trades-billions-2017-3">Here are the countries the US sells the most weapons to</a></h3> Please enable Javascript to watch this video

This covert technology listens for gunshots 24/7 and calls the police on its own

Adam Weinstein/Task and PurposeA man shoots an airgun at a target.Gun stocks rallied on Wednesday after a top Republican congressman and several other people were <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/congressman-scalise-reportedly-shot-2017-6">shot during baseball practice</a> in Alexandria, Virginia. GOP Majority Whip Steve Scalise was among several who were reportedly hit, including two officers with the Capitol Police. The gunmakers that gained included: <ul><li><a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/SSTI-Quote">ShotSpotter</a>: 8.4%</li><li><a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/RGR-Quote">Sturm Ruger</a>: 2%</li><li><a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/AOBC-Quote">American Outdoor Brands</a> (formerly Smith &amp; Wesson): 1.3%</li></ul>Sturm Ruger and American Outdoor Brands reversed their gains within an hour of the market open. ShotSpotter, a maker of gunshot detection software, went public on June 8 and reached an all-time high during the rally. Gun stocks tend to rally after mass-shooting incidents. During the Obama administration, heightened conversation about gun control raised speculation that people would want to buy firearms sooner rather than later before any regulations were tightened.In its <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sturm-ruger-earnings-gun-demand-election-2017-5">first-quarter earnings</a> released last month, Sturm Ruger indicated that demand from gun retailers fell after a period of stronger-than-normal demand that was likely caused by political campaigning for the November elections. The broader market was little changed on ahead of the Federal Reserve's expected interest-rate increase later on Wednesday. <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gregory-daco-issues-trump-needs-address-boost-economy-2017-6">An economist explains the key issues that Trump needs to address to boost the economy</a></h3> Please enable Javascript to watch this video

Gun stocks jump after shooting at Congressional baseball practice

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>The NYPD's latest anti-crime program may be more invasive than it seems. Called ShotSpotter, this technology claims to help police reduce gun violence by monitoring public streets for loud noises. The problem is: ShotSpotter may also be able to record conversations, <a href="http://fusion.net/story/107298/is-nycs-new-gunshot-detection-system-recording-private-conversations/">Fusion reports</a>.The company has adamantly maintained that it is not a voice surveillance device, but others aren't so sure. "There is clear evidence that ShotSpotter can record conversations," <a href="https://www.eff.org/">Electronic Frontier Foundation</a> activist Nadia Kayyali told Business Insider. While ShotSpotter admits that these cases happen, it emphasizes that they are exceptional. It only collects noises that happen at exactly the time of the blast, according to CEO Ralph A. Clark. "The system basically truncates the noise; two seconds before, maybe three seconds after," Clark explained to Business Insider. He went on to emphasize that ShotSpotter's technology does not live-stream."The technology is not capable of doing any online real-time streaming," he said.Privacy concerns over ShotSpotter, however, may still start to bubble up in New York, which is piloting a $1.5 million project to test the on-the-street equipment."This gunshot detection system is going to do a world of good in terms of going after the bad guys," New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/17/nyregion/shotspotter-detection-system-pinpoints-gunshot-locations-and-sends-data-to-the-police.html">when announcing the initiative</a>. Beginning this week, the NYPD will install 300 ShotSpotter microphones in both Brooklyn and the Bronx.ShotSpotter, which has been used by public authorities for over a decade, is used in over 90 US cities, including Oakland, Newark, Miami, and Worcester. It works by installing sensors that are activated when loud noises are registered. If ShotSpotter hears what it thinks is a gunshot (a loud noise that is registered by three nearby sensors and then confirmed by an internal team), it notifies both the police and its database of the location. The problem, <a href="http://fusion.net/story/107298/is-nycs-new-gunshot-detection-system-recording-private-conversations/">as Fusion reports</a>, is ShotSpotter's program may stand in the way of the some citizens' Fourth Amendment rights. The cases when ShotSpotter data was used in court present a unique privacy conundrum. 37-year-old Oakland resident Tyrone Lyles's last words were, "Why you done me like that R? R, why you do me like that dude?" Those last moments were recorded and sent to the authorities via ShotSpotter. The recordings were <a href="http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_16391016?source=rss&amp;nclick_check=1">used as evidence</a> to convict Arliton Johnson, Lyles' shooter, of first-degree murder.Similarly, in New Bedford, Connecticut, a man named Michael Pina yelled "No, Jason! No, Jason!" in 2012 after being shot. Nearby sensors heard his cries, recorded them, and hurled authorities into action. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/us/shots-heard-pinpointed-and-argued-over.html?pagewanted=all">Police</a> then arrested and convicted two men in connection with Pina's murder.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>While the merits of determining a gunfire's location seem obvious, ShotSpotter has led to some unintended consequences. In both of the aforementioned cases, ShotSpotter picked up the dying words of these men, and these recordings were subsequently used as evidence in a court of <keyword id="6355470" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Law">law</keyword>. This indicates that the company's technology, while intended to merely record loud blasts, has the potential to be a privacy nightmare. Oakland, which has had a contract with the company since 2006, has been debating its use for years now. The Northern California city alone has used the sensors' recordings of human voices as evidence twice. ShotSpotter claims that its sensors are "specifically designed to be triggered by loud explosive or 'impulsive' sounds only" and that recordings of voices are purely incidental. "The entire system is internally designed not to allow 'live listening' of any sort," the company writes in its <a href="http://www.shotspotter.com/privacy-policy">privacy policy</a>. And when the devices do transmit live audio the recordings only last a few seconds. This does not constitute surveillance, in its eyes. In his conversation with Business Insider, ShotSpotter CEO Clark went on about the specific cases when his company's audio has been used. "Conversations were not recorded," he said. "[There were] people shouting just before or just after a felony." And these cases, he emphasized, have happened fewer than five times out of the millions of impulses that ShotSpotter's sensors have picked up in the last 20 years.At the same time, the duration of the sensors' recordings were deemed long enough to help identify suspects. This could create a Fourth Amendment problem. Is it enough that ShotSpotter's intention isn't to record voices when it has been used to do just that?"Of course there are audio sensors that are constantly recording," Oakland Police Captain Ersie M Joyner III <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X62G5TWG10Y&amp;feature=youtu.be">said to the Oakland Public Safety Committee last year</a>. "It takes a loud bang to activate the sensors to start recording." <div class="KonaFilter image-container"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>ShotSpotter's critics see a breakdown in what it says it does and what has been done. It's important that communities installing the program know precisely what it does because of the evidence that it can record conversations, according to Kayyali. "The representations [to communities] need to be accurate," she added. Another criticism of ShotSpotter is that it may not even be effective. New York City's Public Advocate Letitia James cites the National Institute of Justice, which claims ShotSpotter "accurately detected 80% of test shots." This statistic, however, <a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/179274.pdf">dates back</a> to 1999. Newer data from Newark show it's less accurate. The New Jersey city has been installing sensors since 2007 and false positives have reportedly been rampant. Between 2010 and 2013, "75% of the gunshot alerts have been false alarms," <a href="http://www.wnyc.org/story/311533-gunshot-detection-sensors-newark-result-17-arrests-over-three-years/">WNYC reports</a>. In regards to false positive statistics, Clark said that his company has spent the last five years improving its technology to send out better, more correct reports to authorities. "We're amazingly good at what we do," he said to Business Insider. "We're not perfect but we strive for perfection."New York, for its part, is trying to be transparent with how it uses ShotSpotter. Public Advocate James introduced legislation last week that would require the NYPD to provide detailed reports about data collected throughout the year."The information that can be gathered from ShotSpotter is critical in helping police respond faster to incidents involving gunshots," said James in <a href="http://pubadvocate.nyc.gov/sites/advocate.nyc.gov/files/pubadv_2.13.15-_nypd_shotspotter_tech_release.pdf">her office's press release</a>. "We must also ensure that this technology is used transparently." Business Insider reached out to James's office about the program's privacy concerns. "ShotSpotter has proven to detect gunfire at impressive rates and I support any measure that helps reduce violence in our communities," she emailed to us in statement. "My office has been in contact with ShotSpotter, and they have assured us they are working to address the issues raised regarding privacy concerns."Still, regulatory oversight remains woefully behind the times as shiny new devices roll out. Kayyali put it plainly saying, "the law has not caught up." Clark, though, said he's happy that the conversation about privacy is happening. He maintains that ShotSpotter is anything but a surveillance device, but that new technologies come with certain trade-offs. "People should be asking [these questions]," he said. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/drunk-driving-checkpoint-regulation-hack-2015-2">A lawyer in Florida has come up with an ingenious way for drivers to evade drunken-driving checkpoints</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="EwZXE5czqobpJLXsPUCBDsxSm8XxaRw0" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

The NYPD's newest technology may end up recording conversations

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>A high school near Sacramento, California has become one of the first on the West Coast to install gunshot-sensing technology on campus, as part of an effort to speed up police response to potential active shooter incidents.CBS News <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/gunshot-sensing-technology-installed-in-first-u-s-high-school/">reports</a> the ShotSpotter technology at Newark Memorial High School can pinpoint the location of gunfire within about 10 feet.During tests this week, police analyzed data from sensors "inside hallways and offices in more than 20 buildings on the 43-acre campus."SST, Inc., the company that developed the SecureCampus technology says the gunshot sensors can detect how many shots were fired and "deliver real time updates to 9-1-1, the responding officers' patrol cars and their cell phones."Principal Phil Morales, who is also a former police officer, likened the need for gunshot sensors to the necessity of fire alarms, telling CBS News "If there's a fire that happens, and the alarm goes off, we know how to react."The technology comes at a time when mass shootings have sparked national conversations about gun safety.In light of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-statement-on-charleston-shooting-2015-6">legislative difficulties lawmakers have encountered</a> over the more controversial topic of gun control, the discussion has shifted toward the need to mitigate potential causalities from mass shooting incidents.Business Insider has found that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/oecd-homicide-rates-chart-2015-6#ixzz3dSDenF4r">the US has a much higher rate of homicides</a> than all but three of the 34 nations observed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/mexican-teen-forcibly-sent-to-texas-mistaken-identity-2015-4">This Mexican teen was forcibly sent to the US after being mistaken for a Texas woman's abducted daughter</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="1zNWtwdDoU_DLN006nDVmEPkKbE4B6HK" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

A California high school is among the first in the nation to install gunshot-sensing microphones on campus

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Camden, <keyword id="9753" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="New-Jersey">New Jersey</keyword>'s police department has become an example of <keyword id="470297" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Police-reform">police reform</keyword> since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.</li><li>The city developed an extensive <keyword id="6354565" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Surveillance">surveillance</keyword> system with over 200 cameras and 70 microphones placed around the city. </li><li>But the community is skeptical as to whether this method is effective, or harmful.</li></ul>In Camden, New Jersey, a high-tech network of cameras and microphones catch crime as it's happening.It's the new way of <keyword id="51015" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="policing">policing</keyword> here, ever since the city dissolved its police department in 2011. Plagued with internal corruption, spiking crime rates, and overspending, the department was disbanded and replaced two years later with a new force tasked with community-based policing. The city was quickly hailed as a model for police reform.Now, the more than 200 cameras and 70 microphones are part of the city's newest strategy - but it's rubbing some the wrong way."Camden's not a model police department, unless you want to have your city and your residents under surveillance, 24 hours a day," Kevin Barfield, president of Camden's NAACP chapter, told Insider.We visited the Camden County Police Department last summer to see if its surveillance model contributes to effective policing, or what some might call 'over-policing.'<h1>Some are comparing the new Camden to a 'surveillance state.'</h1><div type="image" title="Systemic_Camden_V5_CUT 11.00_00_27_14.Still006" height="1080" width="1920" msid="80716756" hostid="261"></div>As we walked inside the Camden County Police Department's <a href="https://www.nj.com/news/2011/01/crime-plagued_camden_will_be_g.html">multimillion-dollar command center</a>, wall-to-wall monitors showing street corners from around the city covered the perimeter of the room. Crime analysts sat at desks parsing through <keyword id="21654" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="video">video</keyword> after video, sound after sound. One analyst for a program called <a href="https://www.shotspotter.com/law-enforcement/gunshot-detection/">ShotSpotter</a> showed Insider how police can track the locations of crimes through the department's extensive camera network."You can see exactly where in the city it's located, and then you can hit a street view, and the officers will know it'll be by the third house at the end of the block."The command center is the department's crown jewel. In fact, there are <a href="https://atlasofsurveillance.org/real-time-crime-centers">less than 90 centers </a>like it across the country. Relying on technology is a huge part of an officer's day. Most are equipped with body-worn cameras, which they use to review footage alongside supervisors. During our visit, new officer Anthony Alvarez watched playback from a moment when he and his partners responded to a call in a home. Inside, a man was threatening to harm himself and others with what looked like sharpened drumsticks. His partner later deploys a taser, effectively unarming the man. "Your mind kind of goes there, like you're nervous that this could go, you know, the worst possible way," Alvarez said. New officers like Alvarez review their calls with supervisors. Sgt. Raphael Thornton, who's been on the force for almost 30 years, commends Anthony on his de-escalating tactics. "Good job going into talking to him. They didn't scream at him, "Drop the sticks, Drop the sticks!" You didn't agitate the situation. You kept your composure," Thornton said to Alvarez.<h1>The old way of policing wasn't working.</h1><div type="image" title="Systemic_Camden_V5_CUT 11.00_00_33_02.Still003" height="1080" width="1920" msid="80716758" hostid="261"></div>All of this training didn't begin until after Camden dissolved, rebuilt, and renamed its police department between 2011 and 2013. Many of the issues the old police department faced began in the 90s, when crime spiked to some of the <a href="https://rand.camden.rutgers.edu/files/crime-in-camden-cities-report.pdf">highest levels</a> the city had seen. "We came to work and we almost lost sight of who we were protecting," Thornton said.It only got worse in the 2000s when officers were <a href="https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/camden-agrees-pay-35m-victims-police-corruption">busted</a> for pocketing money and framing suspects. "I heard other officers make comments such as, 'Camden's a toilet hole, just full of crap,'" police chief Gabriel Rodriguez, then an officer, said. Rodriguez was born and raised in Camden, and took over the department following the departure of chief Joseph Wysocki. "I grew up in the projects, in one of the worst projects in East Camden. I'm not a criminal," he said. "People that come out of Camden aren't criminals. But that's how police viewed them."On top of this, Camden spiraled into economic distress. The city was heavily reliant on <a href="https://www.cnjg.org/sites/default/files/resources/The%20Budget%20Report%20%E2%80%93%20The%20City%20of%20Camden%E2%80%99s%20Fiscal%20Environment%20%E2%80%93%202001%20to%202010%20%28CamConnect%29.pdf">state aid</a> when former Gov. Chris Christie decided to <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/assets/2016/04/pew_state_role_in_local_government_financial_distress.pdf">slash the budget in 2011</a> due to expensive union contracts and a history of bad policing. "This was about responsible, caring leaders recognizing some undeniable truths about Camden City's law enforcement needs," Christie said at an address to the city.<h1>Camden had to rebuild its police department from scratch.</h1>But in between those two years it took to form the new police department, crime in Camden <a href="http://os.cqpress.com/citycrime/2012/CityCrime2013_CityCrimeRateRankings.pdf">skyrocketed</a>.In this period of time, Camden brought in a new chief, Scott Thomson, implemented new technology and training, and rehired some of the original staff. Wysocki, the department's recently retired chief, said he needed to re-submit an application for a job he'd been doing for over 20 years. "It was a decision that each officer had to make. Did you want to go through this? Did you want to be part of a new organization," he said.<a href="https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20150517_Camden_County_Police_Department_struggling_to_keep_officers.html">Some officers refused</a> to join the new force because of lower wages and union disagreements. And many community members <a href="https://www.njcourts.gov/courts/assets/municipal/caselaw/redd_v_bowman.pdf">petitioned</a> to stop the disbandment altogether. Still, violent <a href="https://crime-data-explorer.fr.cloud.gov/explorer/agency/NJ0040800/crime">crime did eventually go down</a> since the new department launched in 2013. Homicides reached an all-time low in 2019. <h1>'You do not prevent crimes with technology.'</h1><div type="image" title="Systemic_Camden_V5_CUT 11.00_06_22_09.Still009" height="1080" width="1920" msid="80716760" hostid="261"></div>But for some Camden residents, lower crime doesn't mean the problem is fixed. Barfield, the longtime resident of Camden and local NAACP president, says the overhaul sparked fears of over-policing in the community. "People in the community felt that we was under martial law," he said. In fact, a <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/inq/complaints-rise-under-camden-police-20150425.html">Philadelphia Inquirer</a> report found the number of excessive-force complaints nearly doubled just a couple of years after the department was formed. According to the department, those numbers have dropped significantly since then. Still, residents are wary. "You do not prevent crimes with technology. There was a lot of situations where community and businesses felt that they were being harassed and picked on, when police brought this term 'law and order' to the city," he said.He said it's not clear whether the new technology brought to the city has actually reduced crime, or if it's just a talking point. On another note, the turnover rates made it difficult for the community to connect with cops. "Officers are constantly changing. How can you build any relationship [when] you're constantly seeing that high turnover of these new recruits that are coming in walking the streets."Shortly after the new Camden County Police Department was established, many <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20150517_Camden_County_Police_Department_struggling_to_keep_officers.html">officers quit or retired</a>, and the new department <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/camden-police-defund-minneapolis-george-floyd-protest-20200609.html">struggled</a> to keep its officers. Barfield also points to the fact that more than half of the department's sworn are white, patrolling a city that's more than <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/camdencitynewjersey">95% minority</a>. <h1>The department is on the verge of change yet again.</h1>Still, many police departments that are trying to reform have been watching Camden - especially in the summer of 2020. The department fell into the national spotlight after a photo <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/police-officers-stood-protesters-outraged-george-floyds-death/story?id=70984369">went viral </a>showing former chief Wysocki walking alongside Black Lives Matter protesters.Former Chief Wysocki said he didn't think that moment would blow up. But he hopes the takeaway is that the department is striving to get better. "We have to keep getting better. We have to progress with time," he said. "What we're doing in 2020 might not apply in 2030. Like the industry, we have to keep changing with the times." "I think people at first, when you're introducing change, might be a little bit skeptical. We're going on seven years now of operating differently," Capt. Kevin Lutz said. But community members like Barfield think more impactful changes need to be made. "You had seven years to try to figure this out. I would think that a system would have been in place by now."The department is on the verge of change again as Wysocki steps down to retire and Gabriel Rodriguez takes over. "These problems in Camden didn't occur overnight," Rodriguez said. "We still have a long ways to go. We're not waving the flag of victory, but we're headed in the right direction."

We went inside the police hub that some say has turned Camden, New Jersey, into a 'surveillance state'

<table class="image-container float_right" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"></div>AP</td></tr></table>The <keyword id="134917" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="department-of-homeland-security">Department of Homeland Security</keyword> (DHS) and the Secret Service have <a href="https://www.fbo.gov/utils/view?id=f89bb37fdb39c74315a9b4d2c368d9cb">requested information</a> to support the installation of a <a href="https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&amp;mode=form&amp;id=3f9c01700994211389e0cb07b3eb66f1&amp;tab=core&amp;tabmode=list&amp;=">gunshot detection system</a> in Washington D.C.
Such a system is already in place in various cities, as outlined last May by The New York Times, and it records a whole lot more than gunshots. A sergeant for the Richmond Police Department told the Times he could hear, “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/us/shots-heard-pinpointed-and-argued-over.html?pagewanted=all">doors slamming, birds chirping, cars on the highway, horns honking</a>."
These systems can also record conversations, which raises questions about the limits of police surveillance. Indeed, one murder case in New Bedford, Mass. is expected to hinge on a recorded argument, according to the Times.
The main supplier of the current system is <a href="http://www.shotspotter.com/">ShotSpotter</a>, which lists Lockheed Martin and the Ferguson Group as two of its three <a href="http://www.shotspotter.com/partners/strategic-partners">Strategic Partners</a>.
<table class="image-container float_left" width="200"><tr><td><div class="image"></div><a href="http://www.shotspotter.com/">ShotSpotter</a></td></tr></table>Lockheed <a href="http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/what-we-do/aerospace-defense/unmanned-systems.html">manufactures many unmanned systems</a> that could soon be flying <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/congress-passes-law-for-drones-us-2015-2012-2">U.S. airspace</a>. The Ferguson Group "lobbies Congress and the federal agencies on behalf of public and private interests across the country. The Ferguson Group is the largest federal representative of local governments in Washington, DC."
OpenSecrets has <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?id=D000021980">ShotSpotter paying Ferguson Group $390,000 from 2010 to 2012</a>.
A few of the questions DHS wants to answers are:
<ul>
<li>The exact effective range of the system</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>How easily can the sensors be concealed "aesthetically to match their surroundings"</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Can the system be used without "use of live fire or blanks"</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Can the system be made portable</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Will the system detect 95 percent or more of an areas gunshot incidents and can it be monitored by government agencies alone</li>
</ul>
SpotShotter says its wide-area acoustic technology can be used to cover areas of up to 20 square miles and has already logged more than half-a-million incidents.
In addition to this most recent request for the Secret Service, the ShotSpotter system is used by a long <a href="http://www.shotspotter.com/news-and-events/news">list of regional law enforcement agencies</a> outlined on the company's website.
This layout Homeland Security is looking for could be very similar ShotSpotter's regional systems, but DHS wants the ability to monitor its system solely within federal agencies.

Homeland Security Is Researching A Huge New Public Surveillance System

Yardarm Technologies' gun censor looks like a small door-stop. At only 2.5 inches in length, the device houses two accelerometers and a magnetometer.
Inserted into the grip of a gun, these instruments can monitor the weapon's movements and can tell when it's fired. And since a chip inside of the sensor is connected to individual officers' phones via Bluetooth, it also puts these developments on a digital map and shares them with other law enforcement officers. That way, police dispatch can get in touch or send back-up immediately once a firearm is discharged.
Thanks to $2 million in angel and seed funding raised in 2013, the company is testing its technology on a dozen guns at a sheriff's office in Santa Cruz County, California and a police department in Carrollton, Texas.
Jim Schaff, the company's VP of marketing, recently showed Business Insider how the Yardarm sensor works in tandem with an airsoft gun and iPad.
Schaff was logged into a user interface that tracks the activities and location of each gun linked with the system. On the left of the display, recent developments were automatically layered at the top of an event feed, with each of them time-stamped down to the second. Schaff pulled the trigger on his airgun. The event "Weapon Fired" popped up on the feed against a red triangle.
On the right, the gun's location was continuously flagged on a map.

"We're profiling signatures for different events," Schaff said. Yardarm's field trials are providing further data for which signatures match which actions. Holster, unholster, and fire are the major targets for the device's development. But Yardarm is hoping to add a few additional actions that the system can identify, such as when a weapon is moved away from its armory, reloaded, or handled by a police officer in hot pursuit.
"Foot pursuit's been the big, hairy beast for law enforcement for a long time, right? Because as soon as an officer gets in foot pursuit, they start losing where that officer is," Schaff said. Yardarm's tracking system could solve this problem.

Santa Cruz County Sheriff Phil Wowak retired from the department last month, after 32 years of service. But he's staying on to help bring Yardarm into the organization's day-to-day workflow.
After talks with the company in 2013, Wowak offered his department as a test site for Yardarm's product. That was a few months after Santa Cruz Police Department, one of the four municipal police agencies under the county sheriff's office, saw two of its police officers - detectives in plain clothes - <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/2-Santa-Cruz-officers-shot-to-death-4311095.php">shot and killed</a> while on duty.
For him, Yardarm's service is most useful "as an alarm" signaling dangerous situations to the department's decision-makers.
"This is what we're displaying: the person, the event, the time," Schaff summarized. "We're giving the location. It's all being recorded. So we're keeping a full history," he said.

Eventually, Schaff said it's possible Yardarm would have a "somebody struggling for the gun" profile, which was part of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/darren-wilson-story-shooting-michael-brown-2014-10" target="_blank">narrative</a> of what happened during the incident in which he killed the unarmed Brown, sparking widespread protest.
Even more decisive to corroborating his story would have been the ability to reference the direction Wilson's gun was pointing each time he fired his weapon. That capability is in reach, Schaff said, but not yet with the reliability Yardarm hopes to deliver. It would take a small gyroscope to be able to make the censor capable of providing the information needed to go back and analyze a weapon's direction of fire at professional-level accuracy. Schaff thinks "will be a gen two" capability.

Divisive and high-profile cases of police abuse like Michael Brown's killing may spark a push for the technology's adoption. But Schaff also thinks it provides a critical crutch at a time when police forces are still suffering from a post-recession reduction in size.
"When you get a reduction in force, what you have is fewer officers in the field, more officers who are alone in the field; so officer safety becomes a question," Schaff said. "They're offsetting this with technology."
Schaff and Yardarm are also seeking clients in the world of private security, and industry which counts <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/01/AR2007010100665.html">more</a> employees than there are police officers in the United States. In that field, Schaff said, Yardarm might be more useful for employee oversight than security. "At 3:00 in the morning, did a private security officer actually walk patrol?" Schaff asked hypothetically.
Yardarm Technologies is looking to raise another round of funding in the first half of the year and in the next 45 days plans to manufacture one to two hundred test guns from their base of engineering and manufacturing in Alpharetta, Georgia. Purchase and use by law enforcement agencies could come as early as this summer or fall.

How Police Departments Can Use Mobile Devices To Monitor How Their Guns Are Used

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>A California-based company is looking to provide police departments with the ability to know when and where an officer fires a shot or even unholsters a firearm the moment it happens.
Yardarm Technologies' gun censor looks like a small door-stop. At only 2.5 inches in length, the device houses two accelerometers and a magnetometer.
Inserted into the grip of a gun, these instruments can monitor the weapon's movements and can tell when it's fired. And since a chip inside of the sensor is connected to individual officers' phones via Bluetooth, it also puts these developments on a digital map and shares them with other <keyword id="6355470" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Law">law</keyword> enforcement officers. That way, police dispatch can get in touch or send back-up immediately once a firearm is discharged.
Thanks to $2 million in angel and seed funding raised in 2013, the company is testing its technology on a dozen guns at a sheriff's office in Santa Cruz County, California and a police department in Carrollton, Texas.
Jim Schaff, the company's VP of marketing, recently showed Business Insider how the Yardarm sensor works in tandem with an airsoft gun and iPad.
Schaff was logged into a user interface that tracks the activities and location of each gun linked with the system. On the left of the display, recent developments were automatically layered at the top of an event feed, with each of them time-stamped down to the second. Schaff pulled the trigger on his airgun. The event "Weapon Fired" popped up on the feed against a red triangle.
On the right, the gun's location was continuously flagged on a map.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>To make their electronics accurately report something as dramatic as a gunshot, Yardarm's developers analyzed the recoil that rocks a gun every time it's fired. Accelerometers inside the weapon are tuned to pick up on that kinetic signature.
"We're profiling signatures for different events," Schaff said. Yardarm's field trials are providing further data for which signatures match which actions. Holster, unholster, and fire are the major targets for the device's development. But Yardarm is hoping to add a few additional actions that the system can identify, such as when a weapon is moved away from its armory, reloaded, or handled by a police officer in hot pursuit.
"Foot pursuit's been the big, hairy beast for law enforcement for a long time, right? Because as soon as an officer gets in foot pursuit, they start losing where that officer is," Schaff said. Yardarm's tracking system could solve this problem.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>To spare the chip's battery life, the device passively sends an update on its location every ten minutes. But if the profile accompanying hot pursuit were met, a human responder could remotely increase that to every second to stay updated on an officer's movement, said Schaff.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff Phil Wowak retired from the department last month, after 32 years of service. But he's staying on to help bring Yardarm into the organization's day-to-day workflow.
After talks with the company in 2013, Wowak offered his department as a test site for Yardarm's product. That was a few months after Santa Cruz Police Department, one of the four municipal police agencies under the county sheriff's office, saw two of its police officers - detectives in plain clothes - <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/2-Santa-Cruz-officers-shot-to-death-4311095.php">shot and killed</a> while on duty.
For him, Yardarm's service is most useful "as an alarm" signaling dangerous situations to the department's decision-makers.
"This is what we're displaying: the person, the event, the time," Schaff summarized. "We're giving the location. It's all being recorded. So we're keeping a full history," he said.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>A gun's history can be important far beyond the scope of real-time events. In the court of law, Yardarm could potentially supply a wealth of forensic information useful for reconstructing incidents like the death of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/timeline-of-the-day-michael-brown-was-shot-2014-8" target="_blank">Michael Brown</a> in Ferguson, Missouri last year.
Eventually, Schaff said it's possible Yardarm would have a "somebody struggling for the gun" profile, which was part of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/darren-wilson-story-shooting-michael-brown-2014-10" target="_blank">narrative</a> of what happened during the incident in which he killed the unarmed Brown, sparking widespread protest.
Even more decisive to corroborating his story would have been the ability to reference the direction Wilson's gun was pointing each time he fired his weapon. That capability is in reach, Schaff said, but not yet with the reliability Yardarm hopes to deliver. It would take a small gyroscope to be able to make the censor capable of providing the information needed to go back and analyze a weapon's direction of fire at professional-level accuracy. Schaff thinks "will be a gen two" capability.
<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Yardarm's system is at the cutting-edge of technologies that aim to provide exact data to law-enforcement officers while enabling greater accountability for those officers' actions. Body cameras are one high-profile example. Another is a system called ShotSpotter, which uses microphones installed on college campuses (or even entire cities) to pinpoint where gunshots occurred and what type of gun they came from.
Divisive and high-profile cases of police abuse like Michael Brown's killing may spark a push for the technology's adoption. But Schaff also thinks it provides a critical crutch at a time when police forces are still suffering from a post-recession reduction in size.
"When you get a reduction in force, what you have is fewer officers in the field, more officers who are alone in the field; so officer safety becomes a question," Schaff said. "They're offsetting this with technology."
Schaff and Yardarm are also seeking clients in the world of private security, and industry which counts <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/01/AR2007010100665.html">more</a> employees than there are police officers in the United States. In that field, Schaff said, Yardarm might be more useful for employee oversight than security. "At 3:00 in the morning, did a private security officer actually walk patrol?" Schaff asked hypothetically.
Yardarm Technologies is looking to raise another round of funding in the first half of the year and in the next 45 days plans to manufacture one to two hundred test guns from their base of engineering and manufacturing in Alpharetta, Georgia. Purchase and use by law enforcement agencies could come as early as this summer or fall.

You Searched For "shotspotter" and got 9 results

This interactive map shows you whether police departments near you are using facial recognition, drones, body cameras, and other surveillance tech

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This covert technology listens for gunshots 24/7 and calls the police on its own

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Gun stocks jump after shooting at Congressional baseball practice

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The NYPD's newest technology may end up recording conversations

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A California high school is among the first in the nation to install gunshot-sensing microphones on campus

Bryan Logan

We went inside the police hub that some say has turned Camden, New Jersey, into a 'surveillance state'

Marisa Palmer,Adam Miller

Homeland Security Is Researching A Huge New Public Surveillance System

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How Police Departments Can Use Mobile Devices To Monitor How Their Guns Are Used

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This Company's System Would Allow Police Departments To Track And Monitor Their Guns By iPad

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