Could a new system help police address random gunfire? Dallas hopes to find out

The Dallas Police Department will soon try out a new system to better pinpoint random bursts of gunfire.

The City Council on Wednesday approved a three-year contract for $336,362 with Crime Gunshot Intelligence Technologies for its gunshot detection program, FireFLY LE. The system works by alerting a police employee when it picks up on the sound of a potential gunshot. That employee will evaluate the noise, and if they tag it as gunfire, patrol is notified to its possible location.

Council members have voiced concerns in recent years about random gunfire in Dallas, with some noting that residents constantly report the problem and complain about feeling ignored. Police usually label random gunfire calls a lower priority.

Police officials have said random gunfire happens across the city and often spikes on holidays. So such gunshots result from celebrating, while others result from people discharging a firearm while intoxicated or as an intentional violent act.

Dallas police reported 8,301 random gunfire calls this year as of Wednesday, with the highest volume in the southern sectors of the city. By this time last year, the department recorded 9,754.

Gunshot detection systems are used across the U.S. but have spurred questions about accuracy, expense and level of impact. ShotSpotter — one of the most popular — is used in more than 150 cities, but has been rejected by areas such as Atlanta and Portland, according to CNN. In Chicago, one of the largest cities to use it, officials have been immersed in debate about whether to renew their contract, The Chicago Tribune reported this week.

Dallas has considered gunshot detection technology before, but the idea was nixed because of accuracy concerns and high costs. Police Chief Eddie García raised worries to council last year, noting the “jury’s still out” on the efficiency of such systems. Instead, he said at the time, he’d prefer more license plate readers.

Tim Kelly, CGIT’s president and co-founder, told The Dallas Morning News on Wednesday that FireFLY LE is different from legacy systems in that it’s transportable, not fixed into place — which he believes makes it more economical and ethical. The technology is not targeting one community, he said, but can instead be moved based on where police believe the gunfire is occurring.

Gunshot detection systems typically use microphones and other acoustic devices in neighborhoods to pick up the sound of a gunshot, locate the area where the muzzle blast happened, and then alert police.

Once the FireFLY LE sensor picks up on a bang, Kelly said, the system compares it to a library of sounds — like car backfires, single gunshots and machine guns — to evaluate what it could be. Police make the final classification, and the data would be owned by the city of Dallas, Kelly added.

He called it “a tool in a bigger process,” emphasizing it’s meant to help police recover shell casings, which can then be analyzed to gauge whether that gun was used in other crimes. Residents in vulnerable communities where shootings occur don’t always report gunshots, Kelly said, which makes the system vital for alerting police.

“It’s about providing leads to detectives,” said Kelly, formerly an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Phoenix has used the program for about five years. An Arizona State University study published in 2021 by the U.S. Department of Justice found that after the sensors were in place, patrol officers were more likely to respond to gunshots, responded more quickly and incident reports were more likely to be filed.

“Will it reduce gun violence?” Kelly said on Wednesday. “That’s really kind of a hard question. My personal opinion — not standing alone. It needs to be part of a larger process.”

He pointed to DPD’s use of hot-spot policing. As part of the department’s violent crime reduction plan, every 60 days, police hone in on about 60 “hot spots” — 330-by-330 foot grids — that account for a disproportionate amount of crime.

Dallas police Major Yancey Nelson told the council’s public safety committee this week that the department will start with 24 sensors, which will provide coverage of about 1 to 2 square miles. Police officials opted for a solar-powered option, he added, which allows them to put sensors on top of a building or mount them on a utility pole.

He noted the hot spots targeted by DPD are usually areas that see large amounts of random gunfire. Similarly, Kelly said, FireFLY LE helps focus on small geographical areas. Because the system is transportable it can be moved each time police change hot zones.

“It actually overlays our crime plan perfectly,” Nelson told the committee.