Community Safety Frequently Asked Questions

The SafetySmart Platform is a suite of five data-driven tools that enable law enforcement and civic stakeholders to be more efficient, effective, and equitable in driving positive public safety outcomes. SoundThinking’s new SafetySmart Platform goes well beyond ShotSpotter®, the leading acoustic gunshot detection service. It includes the leading law enforcement search engine CrimeTracer™, the comprehensive investigation management system CaseBuilder®, the first of-its-kind gun crime tracking and patrol management and case management tool CaseBuilder ® Crime Gun, and the resource and patrol management software ResourceRouter™.

SoundThinking offers a suite of data-driven tools that bring together specialized software and objective data, in order to help law enforcement and civic leadership better protect their communities by ensuring the right resources are provided when and where they’re needed most.

Absolutely. SoundThinking provides intelligence that allows police to coordinate safe and efficient responses that require fewer resources in a way that increases community trust.

SoundThinking has taken all the necessary steps to ensure citizen privacy. In the case of ShotSpotter, the risk of sensors picking up human voices is extremely low, as independently verified by the New York University Policing Project. Also, in 2019 the Privacy Advisory Commission of the City of Oakland unanimously approved the Oakland Police Department’s continued use of ShotSpotter despite one of the strongest surveillance ordinances in the country. Sound snippets only include the recording of potential gunfire and one second before and after to establish an ambient noise level. Recorded sounds are only stored by ShotSpotter for 30 hours, and then overwritten.

SoundThinking’s suite of products protect a wide range of city types and sizes ranging from urban metropolitan cities such as Chicago and New York City; medium-sized cities such as Mobile, Tampa, and Oakland; and small cities with populations less than 80,000 such as Forrest City, AR and Perris, CA.

SoundThinking technology is in use in over 150 cities across the country. Learn more about how it’s being used in certain cities to address crime and protect community safety.