A reader is pointing out to us that Reno is extremely misguided in spending money on the FLOCK Raven gunshot detection system, which will be used starting next year to alert police of gunshots fired within the downtown area.
Reno Police Chief Kathryn Nance has been quoted as saying the system has a 90% accuracy of giving a 90-foot radius of where a gun was fired within 60 seconds.
In New York City, a similar gunshot-detection system designed by ShotSpotter to identify and locate gunfire in real time has been reported by the public defense office, the Brooklyn Defender Services, to have confirmed incidents of gunfire just 16% of the time over the past nine years of it being in use.
This means that according to that report more than 80% of deployments prompted by this technology in New York City over nearly a decade yielded no evidence of gunfire.
Out of all the alerts received, the report indicated, just 0.9% led to the recovery of a firearm, and only 0.7% led to an arrest.
The report also says that by targeting certain neighborhoods this type of system leads to discrimination against particular groups, which in downtown Reno could be the unhoused. This comes as more officers are being deployed to City Plaza, where some unhoused neighbors like to congregate during the day.
The City of Reno is also paying FLOCK to set up 40 high-resolution camera systems with license plate readers, reportedly to be able to track down if any cars are fleeing downtown related to a shooting.
The cost has been reported to be $450,000 over three years, with remaining American Rescue Plan Act funds being used.
The reader wrote to us today: “Reno is uninformed and years behind the game. The money can be better spent.” Do you agree?