*[Enwl-eng] Surveillance isn’t safety: say no to ShotSpotter
enwl
As salaamu alaykum, Vladimir—
ShotSpotter is maybe the most dangerous surveillance tech corporation you’ve never heard of. Their audio surveillance has quietly been installed in more than 100 U.S. cities — embedding police surveillance in our neighborhoods.
Now, police and elected officials across the country are tapping into public funds to expand ShotSpotter’s reach.
Sign our petition: Stop ShotSpotter in our cities. Surveillance is not safety.
Muslim communities know first-hand about the harm and fear that comes from state surveillance. We’ve spent years opposing efforts like the Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) programs that target Muslim communities.
That’s why MPower is joining a new coalition of anti-surveillance, racial justice organizations — including Action Center on Race & the Economy (ACRE) and Freedom to Thrive — to stop ShotSpotter, and all audio surveillance in our communities.
Here’s three things you should know about ShotSpotter:
1. ShotSpotter supercharges racist policing and surveillance — with a record of placing hidden microphones in overwhelmingly Black and brown neighborhoods.
In Chicago, ShotSpotter was only installed in the 12 police districts with the largest Black and Latinx populations, putting 80% of the city’s Black residents and 65% of the city’s Latinx residents at regular risk for police violence.¹
2. ShotSpotter alerts routinely create dangerous situations, by sending police to chase down dead-end reports of supposed gunfire that turn up nothing.²
ShotSpotter markets its audio surveillance tech as primarily for gunshot detection — but one study found that 91% of ShotSpotter-activated police dispatches led to no evidence of gunfire or gun crime.³
There has never been any published testing of ShotSpotter’s ability to tell the difference between gunshots and other loud noises like firecrackers and cars backfiring.⁴ In court, judges have repeatedly questioned whether ShotSpotter’s methods are reliable enough for its reports to be used in trials.⁵
3. Multiple people have been shot, incarcerated, and killed by police in the aftermath of a ShotSpotter alert.
Michael Williams spent nearly a year in jail after being falsely accused of murder on the basis of ShotSpotter reports. He was finally released after prosecutors abandoned the ShotSpotter evidence and dropped all charges.⁶
13-year-old Adam Toledo was chased and shot by police, after putting his hands up, following a ShotSpotter alert in Chicago.⁷
Adam Toledo should be alive today. Michael Williams should not have spent a crushing year behind bars due to racist policing aided by the ShotSpotter algorithm.
Companies like ShotSpotter distract from what we actually need to address gun violence, and make our national policing and incarceration crisis even worse.
Instead, our attention and funds should be redirected towards what communities need — like healthcare, housing, and getting weapons of war off our streets.
Sign the petition: no ShotSpotter in our communities. We need safety — not surveillance.
Thanks for all you do.
Granate, Ishraq, and the MPower Change team
Sources:
1. “ShotSpotter is deployed overwhelmingly in Black and Latinx neighborhoods in Chicago,” MacArthur Justice Center.
2. “ShotSpotter Generated Over 40,000 Dead-End Police Deployments in Chicago in 21 Months, According to New Study,” MacArthur Justice Center, May 3, 2021.
3. “OIG Finds That ShotSpotter Alerts Rarely Lead to Evidence of a Gun-Related Crime and That Presence of the Technology Changes Police Behavior,” Officer Of Inspector General, City of Chicago, August 24, 2021.
4. “How ShotSpotter fights criticism and leverages federal cash to win police contracts,” NBC News, February 10, 2022.
5. “Police technology under scrutiny following Chicago shooting,” The Hill, April 21, 2021.
6. “How AI-powered tech landed man in jail with scant evidence,” AP News, August 19, 2021.
7. “Family of Adam Toledo files wrongful death lawsuit as top prosecutor decides no charges will be filed against cop who shot 13-year-old,” Chicago Sun-Times, March 16, 2022.
MPower Change is a grassroots movement of diverse Muslim communities working together to build social, spiritual, racial, and economic justice for all people. Support our work.
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