The City of Baltimore recently installed two new acoustic gun detection systems in East Baltimore.
The sensors are similar to the gun detection sensors that were placed around Homewood Campus by Hopkins Security and the Baltimore Police Department last year.
"If a gunshot detection system is able to accurately detect gunshots and differentiate them from other sounds and alert a central monitoring center, it can be a very useful tool to solve gun crimes and hopefully to reduce future gun violence," Sheryl Goldststein, Director of the Mayor's Office on Criminal Justice, wrote in an email to The News-Letter.
The sensors, which are still being tested, were provided to the city free of charge.While Goldstein said the city would not disclose the exact location of the new sensors, she was optimistic about their effectiveness.
"The new sensors in East Baltimore show promise. We continue to experiment with them and work the vendor to make adjustments," she wrote.
Baltimore City hopes to eventually install gun detection sensors in more parts of the city.
"The City of Baltimore is in the process of testing several gunshot detection systems. This technology is a developing and emerging one," Goldstein wrote.
She added that once the city finds the proper system, "it will assess cost and determine feasibility of placement of sensors in different areas of the city."
The sensors around Hopkins, while of interest to the city, were an initiative of the University.
"The City of Baltimore is closely monitoring this project, but the decision to install the sensors and where to install them was made by the University not the City," Goldstein wrote.
The sensors around Hopkins have detected six gunshots to date according to Edmund Skrodzki, Executive Director of Campus Safety and Security.
Those shots occurred on:? March 8 on the 2800 Blk. of Guilford Avenue? March 28 on the 3000 Blk. of St. Paul St.? March 28 at Barclay and 28th St.? March 28 on the 400 Blk. of Illchester St.? April 11 on the 2600 Blk. of N. Barclay St. ? April 27 on the 300 Blk. of E. 28th St.
"Baltimore City Police did not confirm any shootings at the above locations due to lack of further evidence and/or witnesses," Skrodzki wrote in an email to The News-Letter.
Security did learn that the March 28 incident on St. Paul St. was actually caused by fireworks.
The sensors around Hopkins were put in a company called Shotspotter while the new sensors in East Baltimore were made by Safety Dynamics.
The company that placed the new sensors in East Baltimore, Safety Dynamics, could not be reached for comment.
