Cape Town - The second phase of ShotSpotter has been rolled out in Hanover Park and is set to be rolled out to other areas soon.
According to ShopSpotter (Pty) Ltd, the technology will assist law enforcement agencies to respond effectively to escalating gunshot incidents in hot spot areas where innocent people are constantly caught in the crossfire.
The new phase follows the initial phase of the project, which ran from 2016 to 2019, where ShotSpotter technology was installed and operational in Hanover Park and Manenberg.
This saw a significant reduction in shooting incidents and the number of shots per incident, which also saw the recovery of illegal firearms increasing five-fold.
ShotSpotter is an acoustic gunshot detection system that alerts law enforcement authorities to gunfire incidents as soon as they happen.
This enhanced response ultimately helps City of Cape Town enforcement officers and the SAPS improve public safety by ensuring they are able to respond to every shooting incident, enabling life-saving trauma interventions to gunshot wound victims, collecting critical evidence for follow on investigations, and aiding in getting criminals and their weapons off the streets.
Recently, national Police Minister Bheki Cele stated the technology has both a proactive and reactive value and enhances policing in gang-infested hot spots.
He said it was for this reason police were in support of utilising the technology as part of its multidisciplinary approach encompassed in the Safer City policing model.
The new phase of rollout covers a 9km² area in Hanover Park and is being used in conjunction with CCTV cameras and other aerial surveillance technologies to assist in helping law enforcement identify shooters and lead to successful arrests and prosecutions.
Since ShotSpotter went live at the start of December, it has detected 68 gunfire incidents and 224 shots fired in the coverage area.
An ongoing gang war has been taking place in Hanover Park and Manenberg with a rise in body counts daily.
ShotSpotter has allowed law enforcement officials to identify high-risk areas and times of day in Hanover Park where crime operations to retrieve illegal firearms can be targeted.
Ralph A Clark, president and CEO of ShotSpotter, said the company was pleased to be redeployed to Hanover Park and looked forward to assisting law enforcement agencies in responding more effectively to gun violence in communities.
“We hope to continue expanding our engagement with SAPS and other South African municipalities seeking to improve public safety through a more effective and holistic response to gangsters with guns,” Clark said.
Cape Town executive mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said: “The City of Cape Town is doing more to increase safety in communities impacted by high crime levels and making use of innovative technology like ShotSpotter greatly assists our officers to provide quicker response times and arrest more criminals.
“This project emphasises our targeted focus on innovation and the benefit of intelligence-driven crime-fighting for residents.
“Investments in cutting-edge technology will help make residents feel safer in Cape Town, and more innovative projects are planned for 2023.”
Mayoral committee member for safety and security, Alderman JP Smith, said the success of the ShotSpotter technology when it was previously used by the City meant that over 70% of the firearms recovered in Cape Town were recovered just in Manenberg and Hanover Park, due to the operational efficiencies created by the system.
“With the system expanding to other neighbourhoods now, it will allow for the recovery of many more firearms, improving on the impressive recovery of firearms that metro police and Leap have achieved over the last year and a half, which means many more lives saved,” Smith said.
The Provincial Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Thembisile Patekile, welcomed the redeployment of ShotSpotter. He said the technology would assist the SAPS in responding quickly to gunshot incidents in areas.
“We have seen how successful this technology was when deployed previously in hot spots, which is why we support this programme,” Patekile said.
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