PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland is giving up on the idea of gunshot detection technology, at least for the time being, Mayor Ted Wheeler announced at a news conference Thursday.
Wheeler said community feedback and talks with Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell factored into the decision, adding that the city would instead focus on various other existing and new gun violence prevention strategies.
It also partly comes down to a lack of staff capacity to run the system, he said, leaving the door open for the city to revisit the idea in the future if police staffing levels improve.
"Gunshot detection technology could be a very effective strategy for us down the road," he said, "but the chief and I met and we agreed that while we're seeing incredible improvement in our recruitment... we want to wait until we have those resources in place, and then we can reevaluate whether this model is one of our top priorities or not."
Wheeler first expressed interest in the concept in September as a way to help tackle the city's gun violence problem, deploying a network of audio sensors that would alert police to where and when shots are fired, giving them more data to help improve response times and evidence gathering.
Wheeler initially floated the idea of a trial run using technology from the company ShotSpotter, which recently changed its name to SoundThinking, after a Portland police oversight group recommended the company's technology.
The proposal drew criticism from opponents who argued that the technology was flawed and wanted to know more about how it would work in practice, raising concerns about over-policing in the neighborhoods where the sensors would be placed.
There were also concerns about Portland's apparent move to jump straight to ShotSpotter for a potential pilot program, and the city eventually backtracked in January and said it would allow other companies to enter bids as well.
