MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Neighbors in Orange Mound hear gunshots every day and rarely anyone calls for help. Nearly 90% of shots fired incidents are never called into 911.
Lisa Mull, a lifelong Orange Mound resident, said people will not call the police often out of fear of retaliation among other things. Her neighborhood has one of the highest crime rates in Memphis.
"One they think somebody else will and for two they don’t take it seriously," Mull said.
She advocates for a safer community, especially for children, after her 11-year-old nephew was shot and killed in 2019. She knows her community can do better to stop the shootings.
"I believe it will, but it starts with us," Mull said. "We have to want this to work."
In early April, as part of the solution, the Memphis Police Department installed a gunshot detection technology, called ShotSpotter, in Orange Mound. Their locations are not disclosed, but they are typically on light poles, phone poles, or roofs.
Ron Teachman, the director of public safety solutions for ShotSpotter Inc., said this technology is a tool to help police departments combat gun violence. It increases the response within seconds of where the shots were fired, so a suspect can be caught and aid can be given to a victim.
"Where the public may have thought the police didn’t care because they didn’t show up and then attribute that deliberate indifference to perhaps race or class, ShotSpotter gives the police the opportunity to respond comprehensively," Teachman said.
Through acoustic sensors the gunshot is detected and located, it's reviewed by analysts on staff 24/7, and then the alert is sent to dispatch. This happens all within 60 seconds and has a 97% accuracy rate.
"We think it will help bring the crime down because it will give the police better information," Teachman said. "Right now, the police only have 911 and they’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg."
Its goal is also to increase community policing. Since installing this technology, MPD officers are now required to knock on doors close to where the shots were fired to ask neighbors if they have any information and let them know they are responding.
However, MPD has had a shortage of officers for years and has had to pay tens of millions of dollars in overtime. That could be a problem with this new technology. ShotSpotter will detect several more shots fired incidents making it difficult for police to respond to every single one.
Dr. Ráchael Powers, associate professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida, analyzes how effective gunshot technology can be with decreasing crime. Her research has found police shortages can diminish the effectiveness of ShotSpotter.
"Evaluations regarding officer workload have suggested across different jurisdictions the officer workload is going to increase quite a bit," Powers said. "That makes sense given that gunfire is vastly underreported."
Powers said just because ShotSpotter is in your neighborhood does not mean crime will go away. She predicts it will be some time before MPD sees a significant decrease in gun-related homicides.
"They see it as a substitute for calling 911, that they can take a step back," Powers said. "That’s not what it’s designed for. That would be an ineffective strategy to deal with gun violence."
Mull is optimistic ShotSpotter will help her community, but she does not want anyone to be discouraged to call 911 themselves.
"It could be somebody you know that just got shot and would you want your person to die if nobody called because we sit here and hear it all the time?" Mull said.
This technology is currently only in Orange Mound. MPD is working on getting the data to see how many 911 calls have increased since its installation.