DORAL, FLA. (WSVN) - A high-tech tool may be incorporated in the Miami-Dade police force to help find the gunman who wounded a teenager in Liberty City.
Not everyone calls 911 after a shooting, especially those living in violence-scarred neighborhoods, so police have turned to a gunfire detection system for clues.
Miami-Dade Police Dir. Juan Perez shared details about the department’s new tool. “We’ll be able to tell where that gunshot went off in the particular areas where they’re deployed,” he said.
It will tell officers in real time where shots are fired within 25 to 50 feet of their deployment area. “It also picks up sound that we can go back and listen to, so that if there’s a name that’s called out, there’s any conversations that occur while the shootings are going on,” Perez said.
The newly approved shot spotters will be monitored at the department’s real-time crime center that was launched in March. The surveillance hub helps officers to keep an eye on communities with the most violence.
“The people you see behind us are running addresses as the calls come in. They’re running individuals that live in those homes and those locations are really gathering information, so by the time the officers get there, they’re able to determine who is in that location,” Perez said, “if there have been past incidents, if there’s any threats at that location.”
The technology has been used in several departments in South Florida. In June, similar technology was used, and led Miami Police to the scene of a triple shooting in Liberty City.
“This has been in the works for a good year and a half now,” said Miami-Dade Police Crime Center Dir. Jose Rivero.
Miami Police did not give specific locations where they will put the shot spotters other than the Liberty City area and in South County neighborhoods. “Expected timeline that, by the end of this year, we will have it deployed,” Rivero said.
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