Detroit – shot spotter is a technique used to identify gunshots, but it has generated a lot of controversy in Detroit.

Detroit Police Chief James White and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said ShotSpotter would save lives, but opponents said it wasn’t worth the cost. The new unit will cost millions of dollars, and opponents argue the money would be better spent elsewhere.

The program listens for gunshots using microphones placed throughout the community and reports the sounds to the Detroit Police Department. In the middle of summer when a mass shooting seems inevitable, the city of Detroit is considering spending an additional $8 million to expand the program, this time with federal funding.

read: Detroit mayor pushes ShotSpotter after Sunday’s shooting

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Detroit City Councilman Gabriela Santiago Romera said ShotSpotter was “a great way to help people in the city when they saw streetlights, investment in small businesses, and crime declining in communities that had seen epidemics drop. We will monitor the poorest black and brown communities.”

Research has shown that ShotSpotter may not be everything. A recent report from the McCarthy Justice Center found that 86% of shots found in Chicago showed no evidence of crime, and a Motherboard report last year found that ShotSpotter analysts in other cities said there were gunshots. It turns out that he admitted to changing the record to show. when I wasn’t there

Still, the company says it has a 97% accuracy in finding shots fired, and White calls ShotSpotter a supported tool in parts of the same region. He said shotspotter got him 7,000 findings, but 911 calls for shots fired he made only 700.

“It’s a powerful perception, meaning that some members of the community don’t call 911 when they hear gunshots.

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The next step here is a vote by the city’s Public Health and Safety Commission on Monday. If approved there, it will be sent to the Council on Tuesday for a vote.

read: Other Detroit Police Department Reports