Acoustic Gunfire Monitoring?

[SupaRice]

Thoughts?

I've heard of this before:

Sniper Detectors Coming To America's Heartland | Fox News

[monkeylizard]

I'm pretty sure Chicago and Washington D.C. have had it for several years. On the surface it seems like a pretty good idea. There's no legitimate legal reason to be firing a gun in these areas and not need the police to arrive. It may be self-defense, but you still want the cops to come. The article cites a 90% drop in gun violence in Nassau County, NY. I'd like to know if that violence just went elsewhere, or was perpetrated using other means. If stabbing increased over the same time period, then the results may not look so great.

I would also want to know what the system's capabilities are. I know it's calibrated to detect gunfire's unique acoustic signatures, but could it be used to eavesdrop on conversations? Tuned to pick up certain targeted persons' voices to eavesdrop on them or to track them? Listen for key words? If so, what are the safeguards in place to prevent that from ever being implemented? Any time the government implements a system that can monitor the public, it's worth asking these questions.

[mcurrier]

I was about to post this story, good thing I searched.

I find it nonsensical that they say "In Long Island’s Nassau County, gun violence was reduced by a whopping 90 percent at the close of this year’s first quarter."

I'm checking with relatives in Nassau County (some LEO's) to see if they have heard of this being publicly announced, or if it's still fairly unheard of by the public.

[BigDaddyx4]

" Ballet dancer turned defense specialist..."

Something you don't see everyday.

[Dolomite_supafly]

It has been in use for a long time. I know when I was in Bosnia in 1995-1996 they were testing a system that did the same thing. It could give you a distance and direction from one of the three or more sensors.

It is pretty amazing stuff but in reality it rarely catches people commiting a crime. I seem to recall a study that it only caught a few criminals a year at the cost of the multi million dollar system itself as well as a hefty cost of running it. How often is a criminal going to shoot a gun then wait around? What woudl likely have to happen is a series of cameras to monitor but that will be met with strong opposition.

Dolomite

[SupaRice]

I wonder if it still works with a suppressor on your weapon.

[Jonnin]

I have played with a similar system, they are pretty cool. The specifics are not open to the public so you are unlikely to find out details... the tech has been around for a while, so its past due for major crime ghettos like new york to have em.

[mav]

I was about to post this story, good thing I searched.

I find it nonsensical that they say "In Long Island’s Nassau County, gun violence was reduced by a whopping 90 percent at the close of this year’s first quarter."

I'm checking with relatives in Nassau County (some LEO's) to see if they have heard of this being publicly announced, or if it's still fairly unheard of by the public.

I will ask my brother tomorrow. He is coming down from Nassau County for the holidays.

[TMF]

I'm pretty sure Chicago and Washington D.C. have had it for several years. On the surface it seems like a pretty good idea. There's no legitimate legal reason to be firing a gun in these areas and not need the police to arrive. It may be self-defense, but you still want the cops to come. The article cites a 90% drop in gun violence in Nassau County, NY. I'd like to know if that violence just went elsewhere, or was perpetrated using other means. If stabbing increased over the same time period, then the results may not look so great.

I would also want to know what the system's capabilities are. I know it's calibrated to detect gunfire's unique acoustic signatures, but could it be used to eavesdrop on conversations? Tuned to pick up certain targeted persons' voices to eavesdrop on them or to track them? Listen for key words? If so, what are the safeguards in place to prevent that from ever being implemented? Any time the government implements a system that can monitor the public, it's worth asking these questions.

I wouldn't worry about that. The military has had this for a while and has used it in Iraq and Afghanistan. The one we had was mounted on the roof of our building so we could detect the direction of an attack.

It's probably a good system to put in neighborhoods with high gun crime. I don't see this translating to too many arrests, but it might make some people think twice before doing something illegal. I mean, if the system stores or transmits data regarding the approximate location of the shooter it is pretty much going to tell you the same thing that a witness could. It also could provide hard evidence during prosecution. I don't see this as an invasion of privacy issue. The system itself is not directional, meaning it couldn't pick up random conversations if it wanted to. From what I understand the set of microphone detectors on the boom all work together to determine an azimuth to the point of origin.

[Guest WyattEarp]

The article cites a 90% drop in gun violence in Nassau County, NY.

i have to question those statistics. they didn't specify when the system was implemented, calibrated and installed, and it was only for the final quarter of last year. to be truely accurate, I think they'd need statistics for 10 years prior to the installation of the system, and then 5 years worth of stats following the install of the system.

that 90% could have been purely coincidental. Also they didn't mention, do they have a public campaign in Nassau County, NY to notify the public that these things are installed and monitoring? If the public doesn't know, then the criminals wouldn't know they're there and so they wouldn't reduce or stop their activities.

to many unknowns to depict just how accurate those stats are. like most articles I read nowadays, stats have become a skewed commodity when it's used to serve a person or company's best interests to sell favoritism, or a product or concept.

but i dont see anything harmful from these monitors themselves, all they do is triangulate the position from where the gun was fired, and then report that info to the agency monitoring them, and they record the sound. so if you're not breaking the law with your gun, you have nothing to worry about, and if it does in fact drastically reduce gun crimes or violent crimes, it's a good thing, but like you said, does this thing monitor private conversations? will they use them to install video camera's discreetly to monitor the public everywhere? what consequences does a system like this potentially bring in other areas, and what doors does this open? how far do they go with it? what's next? installing microprocessor chips in our guns and bullets that radio ballistics information to a Law Enforcement Agency? things like gps location, direction you fired, what grain round you fired? what caliber? date, time, what type of object the bullet hit? etc?

lot's of concerns with it as with anything.