SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - The blast of a shotgun split the foggy air next to Lake Merced on Wednesday afternoon, demanding the attention of onlookers, including Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Within five seconds, a computer system calculated the location of the shot to within feet inside the roughly 500-square-yard parking lot of the San Francisco Police Department’s training facility on the shore of the lake. Sensors picked up the shot, triangulated the location and marked it on an aerial photo of the lot on a computer screen.

The dramatic demonstration showcased the ShotSpotter system, a technology for which $400,000 was originally earmarked in this year’s budget but was placed on hold pending more detailed information from the Mayor’s Office. On Wednesday, the office asked for the funding to be taken off hold and spent on the system.

“Literally, lives can be saved. There’s an imperative not to wait,” Newsom said at a news conference to promote the system. He said 50 percent of gunshots fired in San Francisco streets go unreported. Meanwhile, he said, 85 percent of The City’s 85 homicides were committed with a gun in 2006, compared with 60 percent in 2001.

The City has recorded 81 homicides so far this year. At this time last year, 66 had been tallied.

The $400,000 in funding was put on hold after the Department of Technology and Information Services couldn’t answer what Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi characterized as “basic line-item-related questions regarding ShotSpotters, everything from performance to methodology to cost,” during a Board of Supervisors budget hearing.

“I believe the will is there to support this, but it needed the due diligence to be done,” said Mirkarimi, who has been a proponent of the system for nearly two years. “I think ShotSpotters will be a very basic strategy to help alleviate the gun violence,” he said.

The system costs about $159,000 per square mile, including hardware and installation costs, ShotSpotter Inc. CEO James Beldock said. The proposed deployment areas in The City would include the Western Addition and Bayview, two areas plagued by gun violence, Newsom said.

Beldock pointed to Redwood City as an example of a city that has successfully used the ShotSpotter system, saying that gun violence there has declined 70 percent since the implementation of the system 10 years ago.

Oakland implemented the system about six months ago, and while it has been effective in locating gunshots, homicides in that city have yet to dramatically decline.

amartin@examiner.com

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Comments from Examiner Readers

9:30 PM MST on Mon., Nov. 12, 2007 re: "Targeting gunfire would cost $400K"

Examiner Reader said:
The Bayview and Western Addition need a 6pm to 6am curfew, enforced by roving police cars of every agency in SF.

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1:32 PM MST on Mon., Nov. 12, 2007 re: "Targeting gunfire would cost $400K"

Dave Scott said:
I currently live in Glendale, AZ. The city of Glendale has the same such device. Here in AZ, you often here gunfire in certain areas considering the fact that any person can legally carry a firearm in their possesion. Being here now for 5 years, I have never heard of any arrest being made attributing to this device. Mayor Newsome, spend the money on hiring more officers.

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11:59 AM MST on Mon., Nov. 12, 2007 re: "Targeting gunfire would cost $400K"

Tyronne Fatsengalla said:
Another after the fact suggestion. The Closed Circuit TV's have notd one bad guy. This 400k will go down the drain. Officers need a D.A.'s Office that will prosecute and an SFPD Command Staff that will back them up. Another complete waste of tax dollars.

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1:28 PM MST on Thu., Sep. 13, 2007 re: "Newsom wants to give high-tech system a shot"

Gretchen said:
While there may be some false positives during the 4th of July, New Year's eve, or Chinese New Year, there is still an opportunity to have faster dispatch to a crime scene which should result in faster emergency treatment for victims and an increased probability of catching the criminals responsible. While I agree that the police already receive phone calls when shots are fired, I also know from experience (I live in the Mission) that it is difficult to know where the sound came from. Technology to pinpoint the exact location of the shots will help police be more responsive and can help save lives. True, there is no panacea for violent crime, but technology and other strategies can be useful in reducing crime and saving lives. I just hope they expand it to include the Mission district.

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11:03 AM MST on Thu., Sep. 13, 2007 re: "Newsom wants to give high-tech system a shot"

Examiner Reader said:
"50% of gunshots go unreported" seems to fly in the face of the mayor's crime data.

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10:34 AM MST on Thu., Sep. 13, 2007 re: "Newsom wants to give high-tech system a shot"

Examiner Reader said:
Ask a dispatcher in Redwood City how well the UGL (urban gunshot locator) works. It goes off when a car backfires or a firecracker goes off. There have been times that a shooting occurs but the UGL didn't register. Because gun violence has gone down in the last 10 years doesn't mean that it is due to a machine that doesn't work as well as a human ear. Police work and prosecution of crime has done that. When a gun is fired the police get plenty of call to tell the police where it occurred. Don't waste your money.

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9:32 AM MST on Thu., Sep. 13, 2007 re: "Newsom wants to give high-tech system a shot"

Examiner Reader said:
It's an interesting idea but it doesn't work in urban areas. The homicide rate in urban areas isn't on the rise because the authorities don't know or can't find the people who are being shot. I don't need a shot spotter to tell you where a gun is being fired. In fact when a gun is fired in an urban area the police normally get dozens of calls. Gavin repeat after me...There is no panacea for violent crime...There is no panacea for violent crime...There is no panacea for violent crime! How about this for a start, how about making the carrying of a loaded gun in a public place a felony as opposed to the misdemeanor that it is now. You can't be serious about fighting violent crime while you have laws that give greater penalties for carrying a switchblade than for carrying loaded firearms.

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8:28 AM MST on Thu., Sep. 13, 2007 re: "Newsom wants to give new high-tech system a shot"

Examiner Reader said:
Gavin did you hear something? yes it was the sound of money being fired out the end of a shotgun. Hey if it works in Redwood city and doesn't work in Oakland it must be for us. Like the hit and run drivers and the safest pedestrians this side of Hanoi. Gosh G, we aren't in Kansas anymore.

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