ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A new audio-surveillance system to detect gunshots soon will be active in Allentown, Mayor Matt Tuerk said last week.
Allentown Police Department secured a $600,000 grant last year to buy the ShotSpotter-like technology.
Flock Safety says its gunshot-detection system, known as Raven, can triangulate gunshots and send officers toward them in about a minute.
“A quick response will free resources to do essential 21st century police work of reducing crime through equitable community engagement. This technology will make our streets safer.”Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk
Allentown officials will activate the Raven system — and license-plate readers — “later this quarter,” Tuerk said Jan. 11 during his 2024 State of City address.
Those systems “will improve our patrol officers' ability to quickly respond to shootings and break the cycle of violence,” Tuerk said.
“A quick response will free resources to do essential 21st century police work of reducing crime through equitable community engagement,” he said. “This technology will make our streets safer.”
‘Life-changing’ system
Allentown City Council unanimously approved a measure in July letting police accept a grant of just over $600,000 from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency for the surveillance system.
City Police Chief Charles Roca at the time said the new technology would be “life-changing.”
“It will allow officers to respond quicker while collecting more data and supporting the community’s efforts in reporting crime."Allentown Police Chief Charles Roca
“It will allow officers to respond quicker while collecting more data and supporting the community’s efforts in reporting crime,” Roca said.
Flock Safety says its Raven system can “transform” police responses to gunshot reports and improve a department’s “ability to solve and prevent gun-related crimes.”
Audio-surveillance devices being installed in Allentown can alert officers to gunshots in less than a minute and identify locations within 90 feet of where those shots were fired, the company says.
The Raven system has a 90% success rate, Allentown Police Capt. Kyle Pammer told city council in July.
That means 90% of the noises the technology determines to be gunshots actually are gunshots, while 10% of reports are firecrackers, cars backfiring or other similar loud sounds.
Each Raven audio detector can cover a quarter mile, according to the company.
‘Surveillance state’ expanding?
Allentown Police Department’s purchase of gunshot-detection devices comes as some cities are ending their contracts for similar technology.
Chicago’s contract with SoundThinking, formerly known as ShotSpotter, is set to expire in February, and new Mayor Brandon Johnson has promised not to renew it, according to local reports.
“We have a right to not be subject to unreasonable searches and seizures."Lewis Shupe, Allentown resident/independent candidate for U.S. House
San Antonio, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Dayton, Ohio, have ended contracts with SoundThinking in the past decade, while leaders in Atlanta and Portland, Oregon halted collaborations after pilot programs.
Gunshot-detection technology also has faced criticism from Allentown residents.
Lewis Shupe, who is running an independent campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives, urged Allentown City Council last week to reconsider the police department’s purchase of the gunshot-detection system.
Shupe told council members he is “concerned about the expansion of the surveillance state."
He challenged the constitutionality of police tracking the movement of people and their vehicles; Allentown police also are expected to get license-plate readers this year.
“We have a right to not be subject to unreasonable searches and seizures,” Shupe said. He called for police to get warrants before collecting that data.
‘Very invasive monitoring’
Several people last year urged council members to also invest in measures to prevent gun violence.
Jeani Garcia, an advocate with Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley, said, “things would be so different here in our community” if council allocated $1.5 million to prevention efforts “to match what [police are] doing.”
Garcia, who lost a son to gun violence in 2012, also pressed council to release money set aside in the 2023 budget to fund credible messengers, who work with victims recovering from shootings and their families.
“This is a technology that's often used to monitor bird populations. I'm kind of astounded that it's being used in this capacity to monitor the people of Allentown.Allentown resident Neil Singh in July
Pas Simpson slammed the gunshot-detection technology as a “reactionary model” while backing Garcia’s calls to fund the credible-messenger program.
Neil Singh told council members the gunshot-detection technology is similar to what he uses as a wildlife biologist.
“This is a technology that's often used to monitor bird populations,” Singh said. “I'm kind of astounded that it's being used in this capacity to monitor the people of Allentown."
He called the technology a “very invasive form of monitoring and policing in the community” before council unanimously signed off on the gunshot-detection technology.
License-plate readers coming, too
Allentown Police Department also expects to get a grant of about $900,000 in 2024 to buy license-plate readers and other technology, Capt. Pammer said last year.
Flock Safety says its automatic license-plate readers capture vehicle-related information, which is put into a database officers can search.
The “vehicle fingerprint” technology uses machine learning and “computer vision” to record a vehicle’s make, model and color; license-plate information, including whether it’s missing or covered; and unique features, such as a roof rack or bumper and window stickers, according to Flock’s website.
Flock says its technology can capture details from 150 feet away on cars that are going up to 100 mph.
