Alex Niner
Published: 2022
Total Pages: 0
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After two years of historic levels of gun violence in Kansas City, Missouri, this thesis asks how local police officers and analysts experience, utilize, and conceive of the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system. Using qualitative and exploratory methods, the study finds that officers and analysts report overwhelmingly positive perceptions of ShotSpotter, stating that they believe that the system is useful, accurate, and "exact." Additionally, they identify 14 uses of ShotSpotter. 10 of these uses, termed Micro Uses, are aimed at influencing individual-level gun violence incidents. The remaining 4 are directed at macro-level trends in gun violence, and these uses are termed Macro Uses. Officers also report that ShotSpotter is sometimes used to label residences as "problem houses," which may constitute a Type 1 error. These findings have several important implications. First, they raise questions about the usefulness of Micro Uses of ShotSpotter. Second, they echo the findings of previous research that indicate that police officers understand and mobilize technology through their shared conceptions of policing as a reactive profession. ShotSpotter, because of its excessive increase in calls for service for gun violence incidents, may serve to perpetuate this perspective in policing. Finally, these findings suggest that police officers may engage in something akin to the ecological fallacy in their focus on Micro Uses over Macro Uses. The findings of this study indicate that officers may need to reframe their conceptions of ShotSpotter for the tool to reach its full potential and find its place in the proverbial law enforcement toolbox.
