The Winston-Salem Police Department has a new tool to help combat gun violence.
The technology is called Shotspotter. The system detects, locates and alerts police to gunfire in less than 60 seconds by using a network of acoustic sensors across the coverage area. That's a total of 3 square miles.
The exact location of the coverage area isn't being disclosed, but the Police Department says it's data-driven and the sensors are in areas where they've received a lot of gun-related calls.
“When they [police officers] go out, they can actually listen to an audio snippet of the gunfire that's sent to them from the incident review center," says Lt. Amy Gauldin. "That actually allows them to know if they are going into something that is one gun or multiple gunshots.”
Gauldin says it's part of the agency's overall crime prevention strategy that brings together cameras and other technologies to help officers respond more quickly and solve crimes.
“Our main goal is to get there faster, to hopefully render aid to victims and then identify witnesses and collect evidence. So the number one goal is just to provide higher service to the community and provide aid to victims that may be related to gunshots,” says Gauldin.
From August 19 through September 19 the agency says it received a total of 63 alerts, which detected 225 rounds of gunfire.
Gauldin says the number doesn't mean there were 63 separate incidents. That's because multiple alerts can be created, especially if it's an officer-involved shooting.
"If there is more than a four-second delay between gunshots it creates a separate alert," she says.
The system is funded through a federal grant received by the police department in 2019, but it officially launched last month.
As of Monday, there have been 26 homicides in the city this year. Gauldin says a majority of those were gun-related.
She adds that through September 22 of this year, there were 137 non-fatal shooting victims.
Follow WFDD's Keri Brown on Twitter @kerib_news