CAMBRIDGE — It took less than a minute for the crew of five social workers in matching mint-green T-shirts to find people who could use some help.

Right outside the door to their Central Square headquarters last month, they found a woman sitting on the ground with a few small bags, taking a rest in the 80-plus-degree heat, and gave her water and snacks. A few steps down Mass. Ave., they chatted with a homeless man who wanted assistance getting an ID.

Later, they consoled a woman who walked up to them in tears, asking if someone could pray with her. They obliged.

It was just another afternoon for Cambridge’s new five-member Community Assistance Response and Engagement, or CARE, team, which has for months been meeting with some of the city’s most vulnerable…

Boston police on patrol earlier this month say they heard “several loud bangs,” confirmed by a gunfire locator service called ShotSpotter, leading them to arrests of a Roxbury man on firearm charges.

In New Bedford, a local man was detained last year after the system alerted police to a shooting near a housing development.

And in Worcester, police say information from the technology led them to arrest a 26-year-old in December for a series of gun and drug charges.

Law enforcement tout the arrests as examples of the benefits of controversial technology that detects gunshots and alerts police about their location. Over a dozen communities in Massachusetts use the technology that many in law enforcement, and the company itself, insist saves lives.

The technology company said its customers in the state are Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Chelsea, Everett, Revere, Pittsfield, Worcester, Lawrence, Brockton, New Bedford, Holyoke, Springfield and Northeastern University. GBH News reached out to all departments and the school for comment on their usage. Only Cambridge and Springfield replied…

A report by the Chicago Police Department (CPD) that said officers respond more quickly to ShotSpotter alerts than 911 calls doesn’t make a convincing argument for keeping the technology, according to experts who reviewed it. Eight university professors specializing in data science, sociology and criminology said the report lacked a number of key statistical measurements, and several questioned the accuracy of the report’s response time data.

Ald. David Moore (17th Ward) and other City Council members who are advancing an ordinance that would allow them to keep ShotSpotter in their wards requested the data from CPD. The ordinance, which the Reader reported was written with help from a ShotSpotter lobbyist, would also direct CPD to collect data on the number of shell casings and weapons recovered as a result of alerts. On April 1, the Committee on Police and Fire advanced the ordinance to the City Council, setting up a clash with Mayor Brandon Johnson, who announced in February that the City’s contract with ShotSpotter will expire in November. Moore did not respond to a request for comment…

GUNSHOTS RING OUT in a densely populated city neighborhood. Within seconds, based on data from an array of sound sensors deployed in the area, police are able to pinpoint the exact spot where the gunfire happened and dispatch the nearest officers to the scene, giving them a leg up in the race to catch the shooter and help any victims.

It’s hard to imagine why anyone would oppose having that kind of technological aid in the public-safety toolkit. But the evidence supporting gun detection technology, which has landed in scores of US cities, is not nearly that clear-cut, with the most comprehensive study to date suggesting it confers no public safety benefit.

Across the country, critics are raising questions about the impact of the high-tech gunfire locators on the heavily minority communities where they tend to be sited, asking whether they actually make those neighborhoods safer or just subject residents to more surveillance. The debate landed in Boston on Monday, where Police Commissioner Michael Cox faced tough questions at a City Council budget hearing about the city’s use of ShotSpotter, the brand name of the gun detection system the city has used since 2007.

Cox told councilors the technology is “how we stay safe” and said it’s crucial to how officers are deployed in some areas.

The accuracy of ShotSpotter is subject to wildly disparate claims.

SoundThinking, the California company that owns ShotSpotter, says the sensors have a 97 percent accuracy rate, and says the technology “saves lives in the places hit hardest by gunfire.”

WASHINGTON (7News) — 7News I-Team was all over disturbing video coming out of Prince George’s County Police Department involving an officer’s use of force

Cell phone video posted on social media showed Prince George’s County police officer Steven Tucker and another officer struggling with a suspect who was handcuffed. During this incident, both officers had their body cameras fall off.

Tucker lost his camera, not once, but twice.

Tucker grabbed the suspect’s neck during the struggle after the man refused to get in a patrol car’s front seat. They fell and Tucker’s arm ended up on the man’s neck. This was all caught on cell phone video. That video is the only recorded evidence of the actual struggle because Tucker and a second female officer’s body cameras fell off…

WASHINGTON (7News) — 7News has discovered a major concern about the Prince George’s County Police Department.

A lack of backseat cages may have led to disturbing incidents of use of force.

It appears that the Prince George’s County Police Department’s lack of back seat cages in their patrol cars in two separate incidents of use of force contributed to things getting out of control very quickly.

There was no back seat cage in 2020 when Officer Steven Tucker was spat on by a handcuffed and belted-in suspect — and Tucker punched the man eight times…

PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY, Md. (7News) — Earlier this month, 7News was the first to show you a disturbing video coming out of the Prince George’s County Police Department.

One of its officers hit a suspect eight times in the head after the suspect spit at the officer.

It was ruled justifiable.

Now, 7News has questions about another alarming use of force video involving the same police officer.

Cell phone video posted on X last October showed Prince George’s County Police Officer Steven Tucker grabbing a handcuffed suspect’s neck during a struggle after the man refused to get in a patrol car’s front seat…

PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY, Md. (7News) — 7News obtained a disturbing video of a Prince George’s County police officer and his use of force. Some of the footage is hard to watch and until now, the public has never viewed the video.

Police officers have a very tough job and it’s a dangerous one. We do know if force is used in some arrests.

The exclusive video 7News obtained is from 2020 and showed a very intoxicated suspect spit at Prince George’s County police officer Steven Tucker Jr. while he was driving his patrol car. Tucker reacted by punching the suspect a total of eight times.

Is it the proper use of force? Decide for yourself. But, Prince George’s County Police Department called Tucker’s use of force justifiable…