A system that can recognize the sound of gunfire and identify its location will be installed in St. Louis with money from a federal grant, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The “urban gunshot detection monitoring system” compares sounds reaching microphones at various locations to triangulate the exact location of a shot within seconds. The mikes have a range of about one mile each. Police said it should provide quicker police response and result in more weapons arrests and confiscations.
St. Louis will seek bids for the project, to be financed with half of a $500,000 grant. The military uses such a system, as do police in some urban departments, including Chicago, Minneapolis, and Oakland. The rest of the Justice Department grant will go to the Police Executive Research Forum to help St. Louis develop a comprehensive gun-violence reduction strategy that could become a national model.
Link: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/31CB18B61973C7F186