To: Mayor Kasim Reed
Gunfire Detection
Mayor Reed,
Councilmember Bond recently took the first step towards launching gunfire location technology in the City of Atlanta with a proposed ordinance. I would like to request your firm support to launch this innovative technology in the City. I and many of my neighbors who have been persistently adversely affected by random gunfire are very excited by the prospect of such technology being deployed in our City. Please know that I firmly support Mr. Bond's proposal 10-O-0488 and I hope you and your administration will do everything in your power to help this innovative and meaningful crime reduction technology deploy throughout the city.
Gunfire, whether celebratory, criminal, or otherwise, negatively impacts the citizens of Atlanta daily through fear and terror, home repair and medical bills, untimely death, and reduced effectiveness of our police force. Our police force absolutely needs the ability to instantly pinpoint the location of gunfire incidents and respond in a timely manner, and they would greatly benefit from being able to distinguish between actual gunfire events and non-gunfire events which sound similar to the untrained ears the vast majority of our citizens have.
Any steps your administration can take to ensure our police force is able to better locate, control and eradicate instances of gunfire are crucial to the future of our city.
Thank you,
Why is this important?
Three local neighbors spent months trying to see an end to celebratory gunfire through deployment of gunfire location technology. After months of work, those same neighbors need five minutes of your time to give this technology the best possible chance at deployment.
Our NPU Public Safety Chair (Ron Lall) sent out an email two weeks ago discussing an initiative to launch ShotSpotter gunshot location technology in Atlanta. This technology is capable of detecting the source of gunfire within inches, and allows distinguishing between actual gunfire events and other sounds which mimic gunfire, such as fireworks. Technical info is available at www.shotspotter.com and a short video explaining the technology is here: http://youtu.be/V28UMrWGARk
In short, Councilmember Julian Bond proposed an ordinance that would allow for funding of the ShotSpotter technology in Atlanta. This is exacly what we need to isolate where gunfire is coming from and allow APD to respond to the exact site of gunfire incidents. This ordinance was held recently and is up for discussion with all involved parties and NOW is the time to request support from our representatives!
If it bothers you that we can't tell the difference between gunfire and fireworks, that our APD officers waste time driving around in circles trying to locate a possible gunfire event, or that we can't prove where gunfire is coming from with any certainty, please take a moment to help: