Gunshot Sensors Are Giving D.C. Police Jump on Suspects

ShotSpotter, a network of sound sensors in Southeast Washington, sends an immediate signal to police dispatchers. (By Michael Robinson-chavez -- The Washington Post)

The system is running in the 7th Police District in Southeast, which had the highest number of homicides in the city last year; so far this year, 37 people have been killed there. The 7th District includes such places as Anacostia, Barry Farm and Congress Heights, where residents have been clamoring for more police attention for years.

"If it works there, it'll work anywhere in the city -- there's hills, valleys and other challenges in terms of geography," Ramsey said. "I'd like to see it all over the city."

Cmdr. Joel Maupin, who heads the 7th District, said officers get reports of gunfire about four days a week, sometimes several times a day. Capt. Victor Brito, who is in charge of ShotSpotter for the department, said he thinks that officers are responding to gunshots more often than before ShotSpotter was installed.

Police were on the scene within minutes of Villatoro's shooting Monday morning. The 35-year-old landscaper was working at an apartment complex when a man suddenly blasted four bullets into him. Villatoro fell, his grass cutter still humming as he lay on the concrete. When the shots were fired, there were no police officers in the immediate area. ShotSpotter alerted police before anyone called 911.

Scott D'Angelo, who lives half a block away, said he heard the gunshots that morning but did not call police. He said that the sound is frequent in his Anacostia community and that he does not call 911 every time he hears the familiar pop.

"Many times a week, you hear gunshots," D'Angelo said. "You hear them from a distance. You hear them from close up. You hear them all over."

ShotSpotter also led police to the shootings of Andre Pee, 14, and Curtis Watkins, 32, killed just before midnight Sept. 25 on a dead-end street in Congress Park. In another incident, the sensors led to the arrest of a man firing a weapon.

Ramsey said he warns his officers to be extra cautious when they respond to a call from ShotSpotter. "They get there faster than usual," Ramsey said. "The offender might still be on the scene."

Executives at ShotSpotter are talking to city and county officials in Maryland and Virginia, but no local jurisdictions have purchased the technology. The company has been in contact with Prince George's County, executives say, because sensors in the District occasionally pick up gunfire across the border.

Police and FBI agents are hesitant to talk about expanding ShotSpotter in the city. Technicians installing ShotSpotter in Los Angeles and Oakland were shot at by gang members, said Gregg Rowland, the company's senior vice president.

"If we say where they are, people would try to destroy them," Rowland said.

Ron Chavarro, supervisory special agent with the FBI's violent crimes squad, said he wanted to bring the technology to Washington after using it to investigate random highway shootings in the Columbus, Ohio, area in late 2003 and early 2004. The attacks left one person dead and ended with the conviction of a suspect.

The FBI would not specify how much the network costs but put it in the range of "hundreds of thousands," Chavarro said. If the entire city of Washington is wired, the cost could go into the millions, according to ShotSpotter officials.

ShotSpotter Inc., based in Santa Clara, Calif., sells gunshot tracking devices to police departments, homeland security agencies and the military. Products include hand-held sensors that soldiers can wear on their uniforms or mount on their vehicles.

The technology was developed in 1994, when a scientist took acoustic software designed to monitor earthquakes and used it to detect urban gunfire. A year later, it was used in Redwood City, Calif., a town that had problems with people firing guns in the air to celebrate such events as New Year's Eve. The technology has since been refined, updated and marketed.

In Rochester, N.Y., officials attribute six arrests since July to the use of ShotSpotter.

In the District, Maupin said he has high hopes ShotSpotter will make criminals think twice before opening fire in his Southeast communities.

"Some days, you get gunshots back to back to back to back," he said.