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ShotSpotter defamation lawsuit against Vice has been dismissed

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Re: ShotSpotter defamation lawsuit against Vice has been dismissed

#61
post #55

We had a similar case of ShotSpotter faking shots for the cops in my city. https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2017/11/17/s... > On April 1, 2016, the ShotSpotter sensors picked up several audio bursts from a northwest Rochester neighborhood. Unable through its algorithms to detect a specific location, the system did not alert 911 or police. The system also thought the sounds to be the whirring blades of…

How is this admissible as evidence in court? Unknown proprietary processing commissioned and paid for by one of the parties?

drone vendors for badged-types here in California are absolutely promoting on-board processed data products, with every doubt that raises, in place. To be complete, there are great advantages possible with correct and reproducible on-board signal processing. For a market comparison according to me, see the "reproducible data" for academic papers problem system-wide, multiply the stakes and take some small percentage of the general intelligence, and you get this drones market. :-/

Re: ShotSpotter defamation lawsuit against Vice has been dismissed

#62
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's part of the story. What has happened to violent crime rates since June 2020 in the US? I'll leave that as a googling exercise but something tells me you already know and are hand-waving.

You are cherry-picking an endpoint. June 2020 was close to the height of Covid restrictions. Climate change deniers pulled a similar trick, choosing 1998 as an endpoint because it was an unusually hot year.

I am identifying the beginning of a trend of increasing violent crime. It is still increasing. Murders are higher in 2022 than they were in 2021, which were higher than they were in 2020, in most American cities.

Nowhere else in the world had a crime spike like the U.S. Covid restrictions surely exacerbated the situation but they are not the cause.

Re: ShotSpotter defamation lawsuit against Vice has been dismissed

#63
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just replacing their anecdotes with your anecdotes. Why not look at actual data, which is likely to tell you that crime has plunged everywhere since the 80s.

Did it plunge though, or did people stop reporting, and police stop taking reports? Do we know why it plunged?

No post body was provided.

Re: ShotSpotter defamation lawsuit against Vice has been dismissed

#64
post #43

VICE is so frustratingly good at doing investigative journalism while simultaneously being filled to the brim with total crap.

I was also surprised to learn (years ago) BuzzFeed has a decently-sized investigative team

*had: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/22/buzzfeed-investors-have-push...

Re: ShotSpotter defamation lawsuit against Vice has been dismissed

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did it plunge though, or did people stop reporting, and police stop taking reports? Do we know why it plunged?

The murder rate has dropped by about half, and unless you think police are somehow managing to not report corpses, we can probably trust that as at least directionally accurate. Two more trends to consider, over the same period of time: the funding for police has skyrocketed, and the murder clearance rate has plunged. So despite fewer murders occuring and record funding, the police are still solving less of them than…

add another factor -- an Emergency Room Nurse told me that the murder rate would be substantially higher except for advances in trauma medicine over the last few decades, as well. This is from a city you have heard of in the USA with consistent, serious urban murder rates.

Re: ShotSpotter defamation lawsuit against Vice has been dismissed

#66
post #15

We had a similar case of ShotSpotter faking shots for the cops in my city. https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2017/11/17/s... > On April 1, 2016, the ShotSpotter sensors picked up several audio bursts from a northwest Rochester neighborhood. Unable through its algorithms to detect a specific location, the system did not alert 911 or police. The system also thought the sounds to be the whirring blades of…

Thanks for the corroboration. ShotSpotter has now an earned reputation as: 1. Generally full of crap 2. Tampering with evidence as a practice

Consider also they didn't just start doing all this yesterday. Lots of policy/legal cases/social conclusions based on their performance is suspect.

Re: ShotSpotter defamation lawsuit against Vice has been dismissed

#67
post #15

We had a similar case of ShotSpotter faking shots for the cops in my city. https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2017/11/17/s... > On April 1, 2016, the ShotSpotter sensors picked up several audio bursts from a northwest Rochester neighborhood. Unable through its algorithms to detect a specific location, the system did not alert 911 or police. The system also thought the sounds to be the whirring blades of…

Thanks for the corroboration. ShotSpotter has now an earned reputation as: 1. Generally full of crap 2. Tampering with evidence as a practice

2. As a _service_. Why do you think they get paid?

Re: ShotSpotter defamation lawsuit against Vice has been dismissed

#68
post #15

We had a similar case of ShotSpotter faking shots for the cops in my city. https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2017/11/17/s... > On April 1, 2016, the ShotSpotter sensors picked up several audio bursts from a northwest Rochester neighborhood. Unable through its algorithms to detect a specific location, the system did not alert 911 or police. The system also thought the sounds to be the whirring blades of…

Thanks for the corroboration. ShotSpotter has now an earned reputation as: 1. Generally full of crap 2. Tampering with evidence as a practice

ShotSpotter is a private company that is 100% dependent on police for their business. It's a relationship that is bound to end up corrupt. Whenever ShotSpotter makes the police look bad, they'll end the contract.

Re: ShotSpotter defamation lawsuit against Vice has been dismissed

#69
post #7

ShotSpotter execs learn about Streisand effect the hard way. Living in Europe, I have never heard of the company, now I have.

It's actually very clever technology and can be extremely valuable when used properly. It's a shame the company isn't ethical enough to maintain their reputation.

The way it works is they put audio sensors on roofs (mostly in high crime areas) and they listen for bangs. When multiple sensors hear a bang, they triangulate the position and try to determine if the bang was a gunshot then they can alert the police to investigate. The tech fundamentally works very well. It's not 100% accurate and it seems they are willing to work with police to fudge their analysis when asked.

Re: ShotSpotter defamation lawsuit against Vice has been dismissed

#70
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rural Canada here, in an area with no real gun crime. There are people on their farms shooting things (rabid animals), or hunting in season. I guess you could only use these things in downtown of a city, otherwise so many false positives.. I can't even imagine in the US, land of 7 guns per person, plus of course the dogs are even armed...

I live in a neighborhood in SF bay inhabited by only billionaires and millionaires. I am always looking up and cataloging all the surveillance devices mounted when I am moving around. We have plenty of ALPR's and other cameras but no shotspotters anywhere near where I live. If I go into Richmond, Oakland, or other blacker parts of the bay, they are prevalent. I heard what sounded like gunshots last night but heard no…

Cool subtle brag
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