Will Coatesville’s new ShotSpotter system deliver on anti-gun violence promises?

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The city of Coatesville has invested in ShotSpotter, a sound-based gunshot detection system, to curb violence.

Coatesville officials rolled out the technology Oct. 2.

“We recognize that we do have a gun violence problem within the city — mostly connected to the illicit drug trade — and we think that it’s going to give us an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of our citizens in the city of Coatesville,” Police Chief Jack Laufer said.

The service uses sound sensors to track possible gunfire and triangulate its location. Analysts at ShotSpotter’s Incident Review Center review the data and alert local police. SoundThinking, the company behind the technology, claims the entire process takes less than 60 seconds.

According to SoundThinking, more than 180 municipalities across the country use ShotSpotter, including nearby Norristown, Pottstown and Camden, N.J. The main selling point of the product is that it’s supposed to improve response times, enhance evidence recovery and help reduce gun violence.

“We’re fortunate that the city of Coatesville is just under two square miles, so we are able to cover the whole city,” Laufer said. “We don’t have any areas where we’re not covering it. So we think that’s fair to all of our citizens in Coatesville.”

Coatesville entered into a three-year contract with SoundThinking to bring ShotSpotter sensors to Chester County’s only city. Laufer declined to reveal how much Coatesville spent to acquire the sensors.

“It’s not inexpensive,” Laufer said.

The city of Chicago’s Office of Inspector General issued a critical report about the police department’s utilization of ShotSpotter in 2021.

“OIG concluded from its analysis that CPD responses to ShotSpotter alerts rarely produce documented evidence of a gun-related crime, investigatory stop, or recovery of a firearm,” the office wrote.

In 2024, Chicago phased out use of ShotSpotter following years of scrutiny and debate. SoundThinking has criticized the report as being based on “flawed” assumptions and presenting a “misleading interpretation” of alerts.

So far, Laufer said Coatesville has received about a dozen alerts from ShotSpotter since going live. Of those alerts, there was one corresponding 911 call and subsequent dispatch.

The dispatch came six minutes after police had already been notified via ShotSpotter. Laufer said that particular incident is an example of how officers are getting a leg up in responding to “shots-fired calls.”

“We’ve responded to reports of shots fired where we haven’t necessarily found shell casings, but that doesn’t mean that there were no shots fired,” Laufer said. “So really we can’t say we’ve had a single false alert.”

Laufer said Coatesville officials researched the technology and spoke with officials from nearby municipalities who have experience with ShotSpotter before entering into a contract with the company.

“I’m confident that it’s going to be well worth the expense, but we will evaluate [and] look at the empirical data at the end of three years and we’ll make a determination whether we feel it’s worth continuing the coverage or not,” Laufer said.