Situation
After a spike in gunshot alerts, monthly alerts from the city’s ShotSpotter program have been on a steady decline since January 2022, with crime data indicating that shootings dropped by more than half from 2022 to 2025.
Results
Baltimore’s dramatic drop in homicides reflects a combination of strategies, including stronger prosecutions, policing, and prevention programs. As violence prevention expert Daniel Webster explains, declines of this scale occur when “a lot of things [are] working at the same time.”
Technology has played a notable role in improving the city’s response to gun violence. Baltimore’s ShotSpotter system generated more than 1,300 alerts in 2025, helping officers quickly locate shooting scenes. These alerts led officers to many victims, including 134 nonfatal shooting victims and 47 homicide victims.
Officials with the Baltimore Police Department say the technology’s impact is measured by faster response and lives saved. In one case, officers responding to a gunshot alert quickly located a wounded 5-year-old girl and transported her to the hospital, preventing doctors from having to amputate her leg.
The alerts have also supported investigations by helping prosecutors bring charges in shootings that didn’t involve a victim.
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ShotSpotter not only hastens the response of police officers to shootings but can also identify shootings that may not have been reported to 9-1-1.”
