Thursday, August 19, 2010

Planners Recommend ShotSpotter for CIP

The Planning Board agreed Thursday to recommend to the mayor and City Council inclusion of a $1 million gunshot detection project in 2011 capital improvement plans.

The approval came at a second question-and-answer session with Police Director Martin Hellwig and Police Captain Steven Soltys, requested by the board after an Aug. 5 discussion proved inconclusive. City Administrator Bibi Taylor also attended Thursday’s meeting and said funding for the project is still being researched.

As described on Aug. 5, the plan would place 40 sensors in a two-square-mile corridor determined by crime reports to have the most shootings. The ShotSpotter system was demonstrated at a city ball field on July 28 and was touted by officials at a Town Hall Meeting on Aug. 1 as a vital crime deterrent. But at the Aug. 5 Planning Board meeting, members had a hard time envisioning how the system would work.

On Thursday, it was explained that the sensors able to triangulate the location of gunshots would be linked to both dispatchers and police vehicles for an instant response. Hidden cameras would point to the location and give police officers an extra margin of safety in responding. Currently, when callers report hearing gunshots, police must canvass the area and do not know what kind of a situation they may be entering.

The city has had a rash of shootings since May 1. As reported in the Courier News, there have been at least 20 shootings, leaving one person dead and 16 injured. The wave of gun violence has led to public meetings, a community rally and ongoing volunteer visits to troubled neighborhoods to alert residents to signs of gang activity. Supporters of the gunshot detection program point to a 75 percent reduction in crime in East Orange, among successes in other towns, after the system was installed.

Taylor said costs include the sensor systems for $750,000 and $250,000 for the mobile data terminals and all other technology. There will be a $100,000 annual maintenance cost that might possibly be funded by grants. Earlier, there was talk of refunding an old bond issue to provide the $1 million, but Taylor said Thursday the city may have to look at canceling amounts from bonds where projects have been completed. Funding plans will require state approval.

After learning more about the system, Planning Board member Ron Scott-Bey said, “It sounds like something that is going to work.”

But member Harold Baldwin voiced his “unreadiness” to embrace the plan.

“I’m just not totally comfortable with what we will ultimately gain,” he said.

Baldwin said he feared the “significant investment” might tax city resources and lead to cutbacks. He abstained from voting on the proposal.

If approved by the administration and governing body, installation of the system could lead to a temporary spike in gunshot reports, but Hellwig said the police force will be able to handle it without adding more officers.

The City Council’s next agenda-fixing session is Tuesday, Sept. 7 and the regular meeting will be Sept. 13.

--Bernice Paglia

4 comments:

  1. Just for kicks, which planning board member, councilperson, or administrator, has gone to a town where this is installed and witnessed a test? Stop wasting money on quick fixes and near-criminal giveaways to the politically connected like the CSBG jobs program. Maybe a job and a few trips to the library would be an alternative to gang-banging your way through life. You would think.

    As for that other topic; How many storefronts do we need to attract people from miles around and offset the lack of real career opportunities, and the gross mismanagement and neglect of our resources, human and otherwise?

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  2. It's not clear to me why the Planning Board has gotten involved in recommending a public safety system. They're not experts on crime or violence, so where's the connection? Is it just a pressure push by the administration to have an endorsement in hand no matter what the source when the council votes on the funds?

    Someone needs to parse the frequently cited 75% reduction in crime in East Orange. Does that mean that if they had, let's say, 1,000 major crimes a year before the system was installed that after installation they went to 250 crimes without any other factors being involved? That sounds much too good to be true. If it were true why wouldn't each and every town in America have such a system, and why wouldn't there be multiple vendors falling over themselves to sell the systems thereby driving down the price?

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  3. This is good information. I would hope that the hidden cameras also record. But still, Baldwin has a good point. Even if this does work, what will the cost be to other aspects of Plainfield life. I can't even imaine if so much is spent on something and it doesn't work.

    And how many police could we hire for all this money....

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  4. The Planning Board recommends CIP projects to the administration and governing body, that's the process. I think the reason they had Hellwig and Soltys back, along with Bibi, was to get their questions answered on something more complex than buying a new fire truck.

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