The Waco Police Department is on track to soon buy and install an acoustic gunshot detection system and automated license plate readers in two areas that include pieces of the Sanger Heights, Brook Oaks and Carver neighborhoods.
Companies from across the country submitted bids last month to install the systems covering about a quarter of a square mile in East Waco and about half a square mile in North Waco. The Waco City Council is expected to vote in the next couple months on awarding contracts. A Waco police strategic plan calls for the technology to “assist us in identifying persons involved in discharges, and other gun-related offenses, and the identification of suspicious vehicles involved in other criminal activity,” Waco Police Chief Sheryl Victorian told the city council in June.
Brook Oaks Neighborhood Association leaders said they have a favorable impression of the systems. Community leaders and advocates in large Texas metro areas have called the gunshot detector technology controversial and questioned whether the use of license plate readers adequately protects privacy.
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Brook Oaks Neighborhood Association President Sammy Smith said he welcomes the effort by the city and police department.
“They’re taking a proactive response. New technology can only help,” Smith said. “I think it’s a good thing.”
The city called for a gunshot detection system that would provide police officers and a command center with alerts for all sounds of gunfire in selected areas with high numbers of gunfire incidents.
The bid package identifies several areas that had high numbers of gunshots between March and September, including an East Waco area bounded by Faulkner Lane, Dallas Street, Herring Avenue and J.J. Flewellen Road, and a North Waco area bounded by Fifth Street, Colcord Avenue, Waco Drive and 18th Street.
A map the city included with its request for bids shows the highest concentration of reported gunfire incidents came in an area just outside the area that will be covered by sensors in North Waco, between Sanger and Colcord avenues from 22nd Street to 34th Street.
Two firms submitted bids for the acoustic gunshot detection system, Twenty20 Solutions of Irving and ShotSpotter Inc. of Fremont, California. Five firms submitted bids for the license plate readers, Insight LPR of Brandon, Mississippi; Jenoptik, Smart Mobility Solutions of Jupiter, Florida; Utility Associates Inc. of Decatur, Georgia; Altumint Autonomous Visual Intelligence of Lanham, Maryland; and Motorola Solutions of Chicago.
The city’s request for proposals calls for license plates to be read on roadways entering and leaving the same two areas where the gunshot detectors would operate.
Each camera must read license plates with high accuracy at night, in dim lighting, during extreme weather conditions and across at least three lanes of traffic at the same time, the request says. The system of cameras must be able to find vehicles traveling on a defined path as well as vehicles associated with each other and with locations of interest.
Brook Oaks Neighborhood Association Vice President Robert Jackson said he is “all for it” if the systems are used to bring officers to the site of firearms discharges more quickly.
Some gunshot detector systems implemented by one of the Waco bidders, ShotSpotter Inc., cost about $95,000 per square mile per year, The Associated Press reported. The city of Waco has not publicized a cost estimate for the automated license plate reader system.
The city council generally does not publicly discuss operational aspects of police operations, such as where and how to employ these types of sensor systems, Waco Police Department spokesperson Cierra Shipley said.
“Chief Victorian will keep Council and City Management appraised of the deployment and any concerns by citizens, Council and Management will be taken into consideration as the project moves forward,” Shipley wrote.
She said the department has looked into the use of gunshot detectors and license plate readers in Harris County.
“The research has shown these two devices to be helpful in cases where discharges were occurring frequently,” Shipley said.
The city of Houston approved a contract in January with ShotSpotter to expand on the technology’s use there, with one of the 16 council members, Letitia Plummer, opposed.
Plummer said in a statement at the time she voted “no” because she had not seen data to indicate the technology would lead to safer communities.
“I voted no for the controversial ShotSpotter technology based on research, data, conversations with constituents and advocacy groups,” Plummer said. “The data just doesn’t support that it actually works.”
Houston Public Media reported in 2020 that police departments serving more than 25 communities in the Greater Houston area use license plate readers with success, but privacy advocates have raised concerns.
In their first five months of use, the readers helped the Memorial Villages Police Department serving three small Houston-area cities solve cases of ID theft, robbery and fraud and recover 28 stolen vehicles, in contrast to the previous norm of a single car theft solved per year, according to the Houston Public Media report.
Kevin Welch, president of the Austin branch of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told the outlet the cameras make a suspect of everyone who drives, creating a record of everyone who passes a given spot.
Waco police remain optimistic about both systems, Shipley said.
“Our goal for this new equipment is to reduce the amount of gun violence in the City of Waco,” Shipley said. “We do not want anyone to be injured or killed by gunfire, especially innocent lives.”
Clarification: This story has been edited to reflect that police have not yet confirmed the areas that will get license reading and gunshot detection technology.