War Games Sniper Detectors Coming to America's Heartland

[flightlesskiwi]

Gunshots ring out in the dead of night, and not a single person reports it. Yet police know exactly where the shots came from, even before they arrive on the scene.

It sounds like a scene from The Minority Report, but it's real. A new technology called ShotSpotter enables law enforcement officials to precisely and instantaneously locate shooters, and it has been quietly rolling out across America. From Long Island, N.Y., to San Francisco, Calif., more than 60 cities in the U.S. have been leveraging ShotSpotter to make their streets safer.

Minneapolis has already adopted it. And this past week three more cities from the heartland -- Flint, Mich.; Youngstown, Ohio; and Omaha, Neb. -- have begun testing or furthered plans to roll it out.

Technology to precisely and instantaneously locate shooters -- called ShotSpotter -- has been quietly rolled out across America.

The Youngstown Police Department decided to go very public by posting frank warning signs, such as this one at the Youngstown Elementary School:

“If You Fire a Gun, We Will Find You.”

more at link

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/12/22/sniper-detectors-coming-to-americas-heartland/

as AF would say: the surveillance grid keeps getting tighter.

 

[GuerrillaXXI]

These things have been around for the better part of a decade, actually. I was quite disturbed when I first heard about them, and I still have a big problem with any technology that's intended to undermine the armed effectiveness of the civilian population.

However, word is that these systems aren't very effective, at least against common criminals. Most shooters with any brains will leave the scene of a shooting right after they fire (which most shooters do even if they don't know about ShotSpotter or its competitors). They have, however, gotten some people in trouble for celebratory New Year's Eve gunfire and so forth.

Some of these gunshot detector systems are linked to surveillance cameras that automatically pan to the place where the shot came from. If you're in a car, it will probably see your license plate. But if you're on foot and wearing a mask, this won't be a major factor.

Lastly, suppressors are said to fool these systems. Even if the system still hears the suppressed shot, a suppressor can change the sound enough so that it doesn't sound like a gunshot.

Still, this sort of surveillance technology should bother all of us. It wouldn't present much deterrent against any kind of major civilian uprising against tyranny, but it could certainly make things more difficult for lone wolves under those circumstances. And if the people of this country ever do need to rise up in arms, it will very likely be up to lone wolves to get the ball rolling. Otherwise everyone will be waiting for everyone else to do something about the political dissidents being dragged out of their homes at 3 AM.

 

[Brown Sapper]

It's called a boomerang system. It detects shooters giving a distance and direction. We had one on our patrol and it was crap I imagine it would be worse in an urban environment (like big cities with numerous places to hide). http://boomerang.bbn.com/

 

[flightlesskiwi]

sometimes i don't really understand why they publish these types of articles..

hyping the technology?

desensitizing the public?

both?

 

[Dr.3D]

It's called a boomerang system. It detects shooters giving a distance and direction. We had one on our patrol and it was crap I imagine it would be worse in an urban environment (like big cities with numerous places to hide). http://boomerang.bbn.com/

Yep,.... Doppler direction finding is nearly worthless in an urban environment as there are too many reflections from buildings.

 

[GuerrillaXXI]

It's called a boomerang system. It detects shooters giving a distance and direction. We had one on our patrol and it was crap I imagine it would be worse in an urban environment (like big cities with numerous places to hide). http://boomerang.bbn.com/

Can you please elaborate a bit on the problems you had with it? Thanks!

Edit: I just saw the post above by Dr.3D. Was that one of the issues? I thought the technology was able to correct for echos and relied on simple triangulation to determine the origin of a shot. But I've admittedly not read up on the stuff in any detail.

Another thing worth considering is that the distributed sensor networks like ShotSpotter are probably more accurate than the much smaller systems that are mounted on a single vehicle. At least that's my intuition.

Well, look on the bright side. When Charles Whitman went on his rampage, everyone knew where he was shooting from, and he still did a lot of damage. Not that I'm advocating a rampage against innocent people, but you get where I'm coming from.

 

[Brown Sapper]

It should but when we were in towns it wasn't all that reliable and you got to think if your taking fire you not going to stop and orient yourself to the truck to figure out the direction.

 

[Pauls' Revere]

how would this counter a remote I.E.D.?

 

[Brown Sapper]

We have a system that is called a warlock. It jams radio signals. It works alright but it depends on what kind of wireless system its hooked to. I can't really talk about it because its sensitive material. http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,108934,00.html

 

[coastie]

sometimes i don't really understand why they publish these types of articles..

hyping the technology?

desensitizing the public?

both?

Both. I have heard they are joke as well from friends in bigger cities(no, I don't know people that shoot up cities), and that most times in bad areas, the cops don't even bother showing up because they go off all the time.

 

[Anti Federalist]

Problem solved.

 

[damiengwa]

... but you get where I'm coming from.

Why did you fire off a gun? ba-doom-cha!

 

[GuerrillaXXI]

Problem solved.

Nice guns. Are those yours?

As far as suppressors go, they're nice to have, but people should be aware that some gunshot detectors use the bullet's supersonic crack rather than the muzzle blast to locate the shooter. Of course subsonic rounds are immune to this (a silenced .45 can be very valuable), but then range becomes much more of an issue.

 

[Pericles]

Do the detectors still work after being shot?

 

[dejavu22]

When i lived in phoenix it was actually my understanding they used this same system to locate people who were shooting off fireworks aswell but ... i was never caught so i dont know how much stock to put into it.

 

[youngbuck]

Do the detectors still work after being shot?

I think you're misunderstanding what gunshot detectors are for in the first place. When they are shot, they will detect that they're no longer functioning, thereby detecting the gunshot.

 

[Pericles]

I think you're misunderstanding what gunshot detectors are for in the first place. When they are shot, they will detect that they're no longer functioning, thereby detecting the gunshot.

What is much less valuable information than who

 

[LibForestPaul]

Problem solved.

I was under the impression that suppressors only "work" for sub-sonic shots, aka not rifles. Since the bullet is traveling faster than speed of sound, the suppressor can not mask the sonic boom (though small) from the shot? Or is the bullet's signature negligible?

 

[hazek]

I made a quick search on youtube:

 

[ghengis86]

I was under the impression that suppressors only "work" for sub-sonic shots, aka not rifles. Since the bullet is traveling faster than speed of sound, the suppressor can not mask the sonic boom (though small) from the shot? Or is the bullet's signature negligible?

Correct; there will be a 'crack' of the bullet breaking the sound barrier on a suppressed rifle with super-sonic ammo. Don't know if this is enough to pick up by something like ShotSpotter. Depending on the caliber, there will also be a 'thud' almost like a car door closing. I doubt that would trigger the system.