Tacoma Police to deploy gunshot detection technology pilot program this fall

(The Center Square) – The Tacoma Police Department will begin deploying controversial acoustic gunshot detection technology in a two square mile radius later this fall.

The technology is called ShotSpotter. It is part of a program that differentiates the sounds of gunshots from other loud sounds like fireworks or the backfiring of a vehicle so that police can respond to the scene quickly.

The pilot is scheduled to last three years. Afterward, the city will decide whether to continue the program based on the data collected during the pilot.

The Tacoma Police Department is paying for the pilot program with $800,000 stemming from a Bureau of Justice Administration grant earlier this year.

The department announced the deployment on its social media page on Thursday.

Through Thursday, the Tacoma Police Department has received 1,080 calls of shots fired in 2024. That is a 29% decrease year-over-year from 1,524 in 2023. Out of the 1,080 calls, 377 calls were canceled, according to the Tacoma Police Crime Dashboard .

The neighboring City of Seattle dedicated $1.8 million in salary savings within its police department towards a set of crime prevention tools including ShotSpotter in its 2024 budget.

Some city councilmembers were in favor of an amendment to transfer $1.5 million from that funding towards services for tiny house villages in Seattle. However, that amendment was rejected by a majority of the Seattle City Council.

ShotSpotter has been seen as heavily flawed in a number of studies. Major cities in the U.S. have dropped the ShotSpotter program including New Orleans, LA.; Dayton, Ohio; Charlotte, N.C.; Trenton, N.J; and Chicago, IL.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson promised to get rid of ShotSpotter after a study by the city's Inspector General found that around 90% of ShotSpotter alerts in the city were false positives, resulting in police being dispatched 40,000 times when no gun-related violence had taken place.