HPD new technology to respond to shootings

[trymahjong]

This was subject of last nights Citywide HPD Positive interaction Police program:

https://www.houstontx.gov/council/committees/pshs/20211021/Shotspotter-Pilot-Program.pdf
 

I hadn’t heard about this program that was started Dec 28 2020.

if I understand correctly ( the slice show was a bit brisk) In 2021 - There are 3 structures similar to cell phone towers at three different undisclosed locations within Houston, that are “ tuned in- thus recognizing the “ sound” associated with shootings.  When that sound is recognized an alert goes out to HPD- HPD had 7,000 shots that alerted  4,000 individual events were investigated/ acted upon.

There were 28,000 shots where 7,000 alerts followed which were dismissed.

I guess I need to hear this presentation again to understand it more fully.

 

 

 

[mkultra25]

There have been some reasonable concerns raised about ShotSpotter, which have been covered in the Chronicle. Here's an archived article from January - there are probably more, but this is the first one I ran across:

Critics say ShotSpotter gunfire alert data is inaccurate, but Houston is spending $3.5M to expand it

[Ross]

I don't think Shotspotter is going to be at all useful. Unless the miscreant with a gun is still there, standing around, what is HPD going to do? I see this on social media a lot - "I just heard shots on <name of street here>, and called police, but they didn't do anything". Well, if there is no one at the spot where the shots were fired, there is almost nothing police can do. They might get lucky and find a few spent cartridge cases that might have partial fingerprints, but that's not solid evidence of anything other than a person handled the cartridge case at some point.

[trymahjong]

I wonder how many new Officers could have been hired for $3.5million?

 

 

It seems $$$ does flow to To HPD, but it always brings the question up: Should HPD get this new technology or hire addition Officers?

[Ross]

58 minutes ago, trymahjong said:

I wonder how many new Officers could have been hired for $3.5million?

 

 

It seems $$$ does flow to To HPD, but it always brings the question up: Should HPD get this new technology or hire addition Officers?

$3.5 million would be enough for about 30 new officers. The last time I looked at the budget and staffing, officers cost somewhat over $100k per year., but that may be higher now.

[trymahjong]

Hmmmmm

 

So then the question becomes: what is the actual number of new hire officers needed to have an impact on crime stats?

[Ross]

1 hour ago, trymahjong said:

Hmmmmm

 

So then the question becomes: what is the actual number of new hire officers needed to have an impact on crime stats?

Another 1,000 would help a bunch, but there's no room in they City budget for that many new officers, given the revenue caps at the city and state level.

[august948]

44 minutes ago, Ross said:

Another 1,000 would help a bunch, but there's no room in they City budget for that many new officers, given the revenue caps at the city and state level.

I recall recently seeing a proposal to hire 1,000 new officers, but for a different law enforcement organization.

[Ross]

23 minutes ago, august948 said:

I recall recently seeing a proposal to hire 1,000 new officers, but for a different law enforcement organization.

That was for Harris County, and was the budget proposal from the Republican Commissioners Cagle and Ramsey. Their proposals would have hired 1,000 new deputies and laid off 1,200 other Harris County employees, ended the use of Microsoft products, ended security for County buildings, destroyed much of the health care system provided by Harris County, and a myriad of other issues. Oh, the County parks and libraries would have been decimated as well.

[august948]

1 hour ago, Ross said:

ended the use of Microsoft products

The should have led with this...😛

Unless their proposal was to replace with Apple products, in which case they should be immediately impeached...😮

[Ross]

2 hours ago, august948 said:

The should have led with this...😛

Unless their proposal was to replace with Apple products, in which case they should be immediately impeached...😮

The issue was the Cagle/Ramsey budgets did not provide any budget for paying software licensing fees. Whether you like MS Office or not, it's what the County uses and the license fees have to be paid. It's impossible to implement something new quickly, and the users would all be very annoyed.

[mattyt36]

4 hours ago, Ross said:

That was for Harris County, and was the budget proposal from the Republican Commissioners Cagle and Ramsey. Their proposals would have hired 1,000 new deputies and laid off 1,200 other Harris County employees, ended the use of Microsoft products, ended security for County buildings, destroyed much of the health care system provided by Harris County, and a myriad of other issues. Oh, the County parks and libraries would have been decimated as well.

If HCSO and HPD each get 1,000, how much do the Constables get? Let’s not forget they’re the ones who have done most of the b*tching.

Edited September 17, 2022 by mattyt36

[Ross]

2 hours ago, mattyt36 said:

If HCSO and HPD each get 1,000, how much do the Constables get? Let’s not forget they’re the ones who have done most of the b*tching.

If it were up to me, the Constables would get nothing, and their law enforcement duties would go to HCSO while the Constables go back to serving papers. I would also eliminate all of the contract deputy positions in the various neighborhoods, as I think it's horrible that a neighborhood with money can get better police protection than a poor neighborhood simply by paying more. They can hire SEAL or some other security firm to patrol.