ShotSpotter Update and Opinion

November 16, 2011 7:47 am | Filed under: Around Town,Code Enforcement,News,Technology | Posted by:

It is with a sense of ambivalence that we inform you that ShotSpotter went live today.  While we are thankful to Jon Cooper and others who have helped to make this happen, we are saddened that it has become necessary.  We certainly hope that our local politicians do not hold their typical photo ops or press conferences to brag about this.   We understand that this may be a useful tool, but we do not see this as a solutions to the problems we face.  It may be a good step, but remember it is only useful when shots are fired.  It may help to decrease the violence longterm, but in the meantime it will further lower our property values.  We would like our electeds to strive for better on our behalf.  We want them to solve the root causes of our problems and not just believe that they can arrest their way out of this violence.  In solving problems you can be reactive such as Shotspotter or you can be proactive and address the issues before they become problems.

Without a sincere effort at code enforcement, we will not see the end to our problems.  Until our local government stops harboring slumlords and enforces the law, ShotSpotter will always be necessary.  We don’t want to seem ungrateful for the efforts it took to make this happen, we understand it was not easy.  For now, we will reserve our admiration and gratitude for the day when all levels of government come together, across party lines and stop kowtowing to special interest groups, slumlords, criminals and others who want to profit off our misfoutune.  When our local government makes a sincere effort to enforce the codes and make our streets safe encough where public schools don’t need to be closed, we will be the first to shout Thank you.  Until then, we will just announce that ShotSpotter went live today.

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2 Responses to ShotSpotter Update and Opinion

  1. I first proposed this idea to the Town Board in July of 2010 after Abrams was closed. They balked at the idea. At that time I also proposed a summer midnight curfew for those not driving under 18, a replacement police annex, Town monitoring of the BID owned CCTV cameras along NY Ave. and Depot Rd., and bringing in the Guardian Angels to compliment SCPD. Not sure where we are with the GA, but we do have the BID cameras monitored by the Town Code Enforcement, and a new police annex is being readied at the site of the Huntington Station sports complex thanks to the owner Brad Rosen, also responsible with Kieth Barret from the HS BID for putting the CCTV cameras up in the first place. None of these measures are a panacea, or the solution to the root problems we as a community face, but it will discourage those individuals who think HS can be a safe haven for criminals.
    Thanks again Legislator Cooper for getting the job done.

    matt harris
    November 16, 2011 10:53 am at 10:53 am

  2. Personally I hope we never hear ShotSpotter mentioned in any news media or any other way, ever. This is not something that a home buyer is looking for. It is not something that is going to impress a company to open a new location. Huntington Stations’ reputation is tarnished enough. Why would someone move to an area where there is a need for gunfire detection systems? Knock another $10-20k off the value of your home according to the appraisal I got.

    Is someone who shoots a gun just going to wait until the police show up?

    When they use this system in Iraq and Afghanistan it works great because our brave soldiers will make the location that a sniper is in disappear in seconds.

    The cameras are not able to read license plates are are virtually useless for anything at night.

    The only story I heard about recently involving a successful use of cameras is the two guys that were going to rob a drug dealer, with guns, and someone had fortunately installed a camera in the dashboard of the car they were driving. This is the kind of story that I like to hear about.

    No more placebos! Put more police on the street. Crack down on illegal housing. JMHO

    Michael Naughton
    November 18, 2011 8:19 pm at 8:19 pm

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