Roughly 18 months after police officials labeled gunshot detection technology as not “fiscally responsible,” an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department working group reversed course and recommended purchasing ShotSpotter services, according to a 2023 report obtained by Mirror Indy.
In 2021, against a backdrop of protesters calling for the city to defund the police, IMPD Deputy Chief Kendale Adams voiced his opposition to a proposal that would have allocated $730,000 to spend on a gunshot detection system.
“One of the things this proposal talks about is ShotSpotter. And we’ve looked at that technology. It’s an expensive technology,” Adams said at a July 2021 meeting of the City-County Council. “It’s continuing to be technology we look at, but at this time, it just would not be fiscally responsible.”
But by the following February, police officials said they would test the use of gunshot detection technology on the east side. That pilot, which aimed to test the capabilities of ShotSpotter and two other vendors, concluded at the end of 2022. Police did not release the results of that study.
Eric L. Piza, Ph.D. 