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Sensors help Glendale(AZ) pinpoint random gunfire
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Sensors help Glendale pinpoint random gunfire
MONICA ALONZO-DUNSMOOR
The Arizona Republic
July 1, 2002
If you fire a gun into the air in Glendale, police will likely be at your door within minutes.
With Fourth of July celebrations a few days away, Glendale will start using new technology to crack down on random gunfire.
The West Valley city will be the third in the nation to use the Shot Spotter, a system that immediately pinpoints the location of a gunshot. In a square-mile area in south-central Los Angeles, gunfire went from 1,100 shots on New Year's Eve 1999 to four shots the next year, officials there say.
Other Valley cities also are taking steps to curb random gunfire this holiday.
Goodyear and El Mirage plan to increase patrols to respond to shots-fired calls. Phoenix kicks off a public education campaign today that includes door hangers, mailers and radio and television spots. Their message is simple: Random gunfire kills. People die. Think about it.
Glendale's message is different because police can respond to a specific address.
"Fire a Shot, Get Caught" is the city's message, especially Thursday, the Fourth of July.
The system, which cost about $500,000, is a collection of acoustic sensors located throughout the city that use telephone lines to pick up gunshot booms within 25 to 40 feet. And much like a 911 system, a telephone number and an address pop up on a monitor, and police are dispatched. The system is portable enough to be taken from one neighborhood to another.
Southern Glendale targeted
Detective Sergei Droban said police are zeroing in on southern Glendale, between 75th and 59th avenues, south of Glendale Avenue, because of its high concentration of reported gunfire. Last year, police officers responded to 1,740 gunshot-related calls in that area, 1,800 citywide.
A bullet hit John Flores' home about three years ago after the family returned from a march against crime.
Flores, president of the Ocotillo Rose Neighborhood Association, said other residents in the area also have been victims of gunfire. He hopes the system will serve as a deterrent.
"We are taking a zero-tolerance stance," Droban said. "The sensors will always be listening."
Shot Spotter sensors also are used in Redwood City, Calif.
Los Angeles County officials say the system has significantly reduced gunfire in south-central LA. Sgt. Jim Lalay of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said about 1,100 gunshots were reported on New Year's Eve 1999 within the square-mile target area. The next year, after the public was told about the Shot Spotter, there were only four. In 2001, the system detected none.
"There is obviously less crime since we have less gunfire," Lalay said. "It has given the community more of a sense of security."
Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs, who took the idea for a Shot Spotter to the council two years ago, wants to see the same results.
"I hope this will ... restore peace and calm in that area," she said.
Phoenix officials are working on doing the same by reminding residents about the dangers of random gunfire. Those dangers were brought home to people in June 1999 when Shannon Smith, 14, was struck in the head by a bullet while talking on the phone in the back yard of her central Phoenix home.
Shannon's parents, Lory and Otis Smith; community activists; and leaders from the city, Maricopa County and the state pushed for Shannon's Law. It raised the penalty for shooting within city limits from a misdemeanor to a felony that carries up to five years and nine months in prison and $150,000 in fines.
The law, which went into effect two years ago, has reduced random gunfire and led to hundreds of arrests, Phoenix officials said.
More said to be needed
But Phoenix City Councilman Phil Gordon said more is needed.
"A law alone doesn't change things," he said. "We have to continually make people aware of it."
Twice a year, before the Fourth of July and New Year's Eve, city officials mount a major public awareness campaign.
"There is no such thing as celebratory gunfire," Gordon said. "It's a deadly, stupid practice that kills."
Brooke Chamberlain, 12, is participating in this year's campaign. She was the victim of random gunfire May 1 when a stray bullet struck her in the shoulder while she stood outside her southwest Phoenix school.
"I felt a pain on my arm, and it hurt like it was an inch away from my heart," said Brooke, who was talking with friends at a Cinco de Mayo festival when she was shot. "My sister lifted back my hair and thought I had been hit by a paintball gun because of all the blood."
She and her mother, Geny, recorded radio and television announcements reminding the public about the dangers of shooting into the air.
"I want to say that if you're going to shoot in the air, think twice before you do," Brooke said. "You could be shooting somebody that someone loves." http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/local/7_1_02glendale.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
MONICA ALONZO-DUNSMOOR
The Arizona Republic
July 1, 2002
If you fire a gun into the air in Glendale, police will likely be at your door within minutes.
With Fourth of July celebrations a few days away, Glendale will start using new technology to crack down on random gunfire.
The West Valley city will be the third in the nation to use the Shot Spotter, a system that immediately pinpoints the location of a gunshot. In a square-mile area in south-central Los Angeles, gunfire went from 1,100 shots on New Year's Eve 1999 to four shots the next year, officials there say.
Other Valley cities also are taking steps to curb random gunfire this holiday.
Goodyear and El Mirage plan to increase patrols to respond to shots-fired calls. Phoenix kicks off a public education campaign today that includes door hangers, mailers and radio and television spots. Their message is simple: Random gunfire kills. People die. Think about it.
Glendale's message is different because police can respond to a specific address.
"Fire a Shot, Get Caught" is the city's message, especially Thursday, the Fourth of July.
The system, which cost about $500,000, is a collection of acoustic sensors located throughout the city that use telephone lines to pick up gunshot booms within 25 to 40 feet. And much like a 911 system, a telephone number and an address pop up on a monitor, and police are dispatched. The system is portable enough to be taken from one neighborhood to another.
Southern Glendale targeted
Detective Sergei Droban said police are zeroing in on southern Glendale, between 75th and 59th avenues, south of Glendale Avenue, because of its high concentration of reported gunfire. Last year, police officers responded to 1,740 gunshot-related calls in that area, 1,800 citywide.
A bullet hit John Flores' home about three years ago after the family returned from a march against crime.
Flores, president of the Ocotillo Rose Neighborhood Association, said other residents in the area also have been victims of gunfire. He hopes the system will serve as a deterrent.
"We are taking a zero-tolerance stance," Droban said. "The sensors will always be listening."
Shot Spotter sensors also are used in Redwood City, Calif.
Los Angeles County officials say the system has significantly reduced gunfire in south-central LA. Sgt. Jim Lalay of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said about 1,100 gunshots were reported on New Year's Eve 1999 within the square-mile target area. The next year, after the public was told about the Shot Spotter, there were only four. In 2001, the system detected none.
"There is obviously less crime since we have less gunfire," Lalay said. "It has given the community more of a sense of security."
Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs, who took the idea for a Shot Spotter to the council two years ago, wants to see the same results.
"I hope this will ... restore peace and calm in that area," she said.
Phoenix officials are working on doing the same by reminding residents about the dangers of random gunfire. Those dangers were brought home to people in June 1999 when Shannon Smith, 14, was struck in the head by a bullet while talking on the phone in the back yard of her central Phoenix home.
Shannon's parents, Lory and Otis Smith; community activists; and leaders from the city, Maricopa County and the state pushed for Shannon's Law. It raised the penalty for shooting within city limits from a misdemeanor to a felony that carries up to five years and nine months in prison and $150,000 in fines.
The law, which went into effect two years ago, has reduced random gunfire and led to hundreds of arrests, Phoenix officials said.
More said to be needed
But Phoenix City Councilman Phil Gordon said more is needed.
"A law alone doesn't change things," he said. "We have to continually make people aware of it."
Twice a year, before the Fourth of July and New Year's Eve, city officials mount a major public awareness campaign.
"There is no such thing as celebratory gunfire," Gordon said. "It's a deadly, stupid practice that kills."
Brooke Chamberlain, 12, is participating in this year's campaign. She was the victim of random gunfire May 1 when a stray bullet struck her in the shoulder while she stood outside her southwest Phoenix school.
"I felt a pain on my arm, and it hurt like it was an inch away from my heart," said Brooke, who was talking with friends at a Cinco de Mayo festival when she was shot. "My sister lifted back my hair and thought I had been hit by a paintball gun because of all the blood."
She and her mother, Geny, recorded radio and television announcements reminding the public about the dangers of shooting into the air.
"I want to say that if you're going to shoot in the air, think twice before you do," Brooke said. "You could be shooting somebody that someone loves." http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/local/7_1_02glendale.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
And just how does this system differentiate between gunshots and fireworks?