ShotSpotter and AT&T Demonstrate Responsible & Innovative Use of M2M Technology

“Criminal gunfire is vastly under-reported in the United States,” explains Ralph Clark President and CEO, SST, Inc. “In fact, SST estimates that less than 20 percent of illegally fired gunshots are reported to 9-1-1. The other 80+ percent of the time, no one calls 9-1-1, and the communities most impacted by gun violence are the least likely to call.”

SST, Inc., a leader in gunshot detection, location and analysis, developed the ShotSpotter technology, powered by AT&T’s wireless services, to detect in real time when, where and how many shots are fired, so law enforcement can quickly and safely respond to those incidents. More than 80 cities worldwide currently use ShotSpotter.

ShotSpotter works by analyzing the time differential between the unique impulse sounds a gunshot triggers on a number of acoustic sensors placed at various locations. The detected impulses are sent from each sensor to SST’s data center on AT&T’s machine-to-machine (M2M) network where they are reviewed and analyzed. At SST’s Incident Review Center (IRC), the incident is then analyzed in real time by trained acoustic reviewers. The time differential between each sensor allows ShotSpotter to triangulate the exact source location of that impulsive event which is then communicated to law enforcement with the exact time, location and number of rounds fired in less than 30-45 seconds.

Read the full blog post here.