Shh. Don't Bust a Cap...

...ShotSpotter might hear you.

The bang-bang of gunshots roared through a backyard off a Wilmington street late Sunday night. In Mountain View, Calif., nearly 3,000 miles away, an operator behind a computer screen immediately zeroed in on the sound. Within seconds, its origin was transmitted to Wilmington police, and they were en route to the scene.

When they arrived, they found the victim, alive but with slugs in his hand and chest, only yards from where the gun went off.

Since installing a gunshot detection network known as ShotSpotter, which uses a series of acoustic sensors to triangulate the location of gunfire with near-pinpoint accuracy, Wilmington police have made further inroads into a criminal element that drives inner-city violence.

In a Tuesday night address to the Wilmington City Council, Police Chief Ralph Evangelous emphasized what he described as ShotSpotter's usefulness in tracking guns throughout the city and homing in on the criminals who use them.

Wilmington subscribes to ShotSpotter through a relatively new company offering, where SST retains ownership of the hardware but sells service and gunshot data to the city.

ShotSpotter Vice President Lydia Barrett said in a phone interview Tuesday that the subscription service was a less expensive option and has made the product available to cities large and small.

The system covers a 3-square-mile stretch of the city, sandwiched between Greenfield Lake and Nixon Street, and 17th Street and the Cape Fear River. The swath marks the pocket where officers respond to the most "shots-fired" calls.

When a shot rings out in the coverage area, an alert arrives at ShotSpotter's service center in Mountain View within five seconds.

There, acoustic experts analyze the sound, confirm it is gunfire – not, say, fireworks or a car backfiring – and then send its location to officers' computers in the field. Police view the origin of the shot as a blip on a map, and respond.

Click the link to read the rest. Chances are good that if you live in the environs of a large city, ShotStopper might already be listening in. The further you are away from a town center, the lesser the likelihood, I'd guess.

Good information to know.