Legislative Matters - 2023-1-17 Response Final (with 22-1057) — File 22-1057

To: Legislative Matters Committee From: James Stanford, Deputy Chief of Police, Somerville Police Department Date: 1/17/23 Subject: Response to Order No. 22-1057 – That the Chief of Police report to this Council, any communications between the Police Department and ShotSpotter regarding ambiguous or contested detections Based on a review of relevant communications from calendar years 2021 and 2022, this memo provides a summary of key themes from communications between SPD and ShotSpotter related to ambiguous or contested detections. Over this time period, there was relevant communication between SPD and ShotSpotter in approximately 10 separate instances. The majority of these communications were regarding instances in which SPD learned of reported shots fired via another method (911 calls, for example) and did not receive an alert of gunfire from ShotSpotter. Of the remaining instances, there were some in which ShotSpotter issued an alert of gunfire when SPD was not able to confirm that gunfire did in fact occur. There was also some discussion in these communications regarding the accuracy of the geographic location of the alert. There were occasions when ShotSpotter indicated there was gunfire in a particular location, and while SPD was able to confirm there were shots fired, they found evidence suggested gunfire in a different location. Should the Legislative Matters Committee or other members of the City Council have specific questions on these communications, we would be happy to answer them or share communications as appropriate. Since the Council’s initial order, the City has received public records requests related to ShotSpotter and the Law Department is currently working to respond to those requests. Should additional relevant information come up as part of the public records request, we will share it with the Council as appropriate.