Albuquerque Chief of Police Harold Medina says that while ShotSpotter is currently being used in all area commands throughout the city, they hope to add more coverage in key areas. As Chief Medina explains, there is an interest in focusing on “educational facilities and making sure that we get immediate notifications if shots are being fired.”
The results observed in 2022, during ShotSpotter deployment in the city of Albuquerque.
1200+
Shooting scenes identified
179
Victims located
58
Suspects identified
Often, the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) responds to calls for service where individuals are claiming they have shot in self-defense. With ShotSpotter, the APD can determine the sequence of events to see who shot first. They have credited ShotSpotter with providing precise information on the number of shots fired and where each shot came from. This information enables them to determine the validity of self- defense statements. “It’s helped us in a number of investigations,” says Chief Medina. In one the most significant incidents of 2022, ShotSpotter alerted APD to the scene of a double homicide. The data from the alert contained all the necessary details about the incidents to enable the officers to arrive at the precise location quickly and safely.
I think [ShotSpotter] still has a lot of potential and that as we move forward, we can definitely continue to use and even possibly grow the program...[It helps our officers] get resources out there at the beginning of a shooting, all the way through [to] securing a conviction... I think it runs a very wide range of successes for us.
