City Council
City Council weighing whether ShotSpotter is worth the cost.
ShotSpotter sensors alert Pittsburgh police to gunfire without waiting for a 911 call. Council is still weighing whether to renew the $1.2 million yearly contract. A city audit found ShotSpotter got police to possible gunfire about five minutes faster than 911 calls. Still, critics say the system leads to over-policing in marginalized areas.
Written by Amy Whipple
Pittsburgh City Council is still waiting for information ahead of renewing an $1.2 million annual contract with ShotSpotter.
Some council members and representatives from various city departments arrived for a meeting about the renewal, however the public defender's office wanted more information before authorizing public defenders to participate.
The meeting about the ShotSpotter contract was scheduled by Council Member Barb Warwick of Greenfield for Feb. 24. The current contract with ShotSpotter, which began in 2014, has cost the city a total of $8.1 million and is due for renewal.
This was council's second attempt to hold the meeting. One had been scheduled last fall and was canceled without public explanation.
ShotSpotter uses audio sensors to detect and locate gunfire. It sends direct alerts of detections, allowing faster response time and better location accuracy than depending on residents calling 911.
In a Nov. 2024 budget hearing, then-Director of Public Safety Lee Schmidt said that emergency medical services (EMS) and firefighters don't respond to suspected shootings until police clear the area. "Prior to ShotSpotter, they would be waiting for a significant amount of time for police to look," he said. "Now they can focus in very quickly to clear that scene, then bring EMS or fire in."
The system cannot always differentiate between gunfire and similar sounds such as fireworks.
City Controller Rachael Heisler released a report on ShotSpotter in Aug. 2025 in which city auditors tracked incidents of city crime (including confirmed and unconfirmed gunfire) from 911 calls, confirmed gunshot wounds and ShotSpotter alerts.
The auditors found that ShotSpotter alerts tend to be just as productive as 911 calls; 911 calls dropped by 50% from 2014; and police response times to possible gunfire were about five minutes faster via ShotSpotter compared to 911.
Before recessing the Feb. 24 meeting, Warwick noted that the data did not include incidents that had both ShotSpotter reports and 911 calls nor data on alerts that led to discovering victims. The controller's report also does not address scene clearance time to allow for EMS to attend to reported or discovered victims.
The city began using ShotSpotter in 2014 in a three-square-mile area in Police Zone 5. It is now installed in various locations within all six zones and covers a little more than one-third of the city's square miles. The report notes that Zones 1, 3 and 5 account for nearly 60% of all crime.
Critics of ShotSpotter say that the system leads to over-policing in marginalized areas. Some cities, such as Chicago, have stopped using it. During his Jan. 28 interview with council, Chief of Police Jason Lando, who was the Zone Five Commander in 2014, said he was open to conversation about its controversies.
The new meeting date is to be determined. Legislation to extend the contract for ShotSpotter is also not yet on council's agenda.
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