Action Alert
Tell Oakland: End Contract with Dangerous ShotSpotter Tech
This acoustic gunshot technology is flawed and highly controversial
The Public Safety Committee of Oakland’s City Council will meet on October 8, 2024 to decide whether to renew its contract for ShotSpotter technology. This acoustic gunshot technology is flawed and highly controversial. It erroneously deploys armed officers expecting gunfire and thereby endangers innocent people. It listens in on marginalized neighborhoods that already receive the lion’s share of police harassment and surveillance.
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ShotSpotter has received a tremendous amount of well-deserved bad press. The Mayor of Chicago recently called the technology “walkie-talkies on a pole,” because of their limited utility to a city that has been trying to find solutions to gun violence. A number of cities have let their contracts expire. The U.S. Department of Justice has been urged to investigate why this technology is put up predominantly in Black neighborhoods, even in places that have little history of gun violence. And earlier this year, police in Chicago alerted by ShotSpotter responded to what they believed might be gun violence—only to open fire on a child playing with fireworks.
Oakland has a chance to act now to cut ties with this dangerous technology. It does not address the root causes of gun violence, but instead adds another layer of surveillance on minority communities, which get the majority of (possibly incorrect) alerts. Tell the City Council now: end Oakland’s relationship with ShotSpotter!
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Sincerely,
Hayley Tsukayama
EFF Activism Team
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