Audit Report on the New York City Police Department’s Oversight of Its Agreement with ShotSpotter Inc. for the Gunshot Detection and Location System

The ShotSpotter System is a Gunshot Detection and Location System (GDLS) that uses acoustic sensors to detect gunshot activity to assist the NYPD in pinpointing the location of suspected gunfire within areas covered by the system. There are currently more than 2,000 sensors installed in the five boroughs. The audit found that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) ensures that the billing, invoices, and payments to ShotSpotter are accurate, and that ShotSpotter generally meets its currently specified contractual obligations. The auditors found that sensor coverage areas were initially set up in Brooklyn and the Bronx because the two boroughs had the highest number of confirmed shootings, and, within the two boroughs, they were generally placed in precincts with the highest number of confirmed shootings. The audit also found that ShotSpotter met its contractual performance targets, which focus on avoiding “missed incidents,” most of the time. However, the audit found that the contractual performance standard does not measure whether alerts sent to NYPD result in confirmed shootings. When measured against the contractual performance standards set by NYPD, ShotSpotter met its 90% target for avoiding missed incidents in almost all boroughs except Manhattan, but when measured against the number of confirmed shootings, performance is far lower. During the sampled months of review in 2022 and 2023, ShotSpotter alerts only resulted in confirmed shootings between 8% and 20% of the time.