Posted on 10/15/2004 4:41:22 AM PDT by MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
Random firing and stray bullets create fear in some areas
DALLAS - Celebrating a Dallas Cowboys touchdown, or just about any other event, by firing a few shots in the air is a time-honored tradition in some of this city's neighborhoods. To Dallas City Council member Elba Garcia, the random gunfire is a nagging, potentially deadly problem that she and other city officials want to fight with a novel, high-tech solution. "I don't know about gunfire on Sunday afternoons. It's the shots at 2 a.m. in my neighborhood that I'm concerned about," said Garcia, who lives in Oak Cliff, southwest of downtown. "I hear them all year-round."
Garcia, who chairs the council's public safety committee, said increased community education programs have had no effect, so "we started looking around to see what other cities are doing and what technology is out there." At Garcia's urging, the city is considering installing sophisticated gunfire-detection equipment, along with pole-mounted video cameras, in neighborhoods where the problem is most prevalent. The danger of random gunfire, she said, was demonstrated by an incident two years ago in which a young girl was hit in the neck by a bullet fired in the air.
In some neighborhoods, she said, residents live in perpetual fear that they will be hit by a stray bullet, and the noise makes people feel as if they are living in a war zone. Last year, 13,800 Dallas residents called police to report shots fired. Police say the vast majority of those were indiscriminate shots into the air, often in the context of drinking. Only 10 arrests were made in 2003 for the misdemeanor offense, which in Texas carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $4,000 fine. Research in the late 1990s found that Garcia's district — economically poor, with a high percentage of rental property — has a higher incidence of random shooting than other neighborhoods in the city.
Five small cities — including Charleston, S.C. and Glendale, Ariz. — have installed gunfire-locating systems, and Chicago is in the process of installing a system of gunshot detectors and video cameras, according to Dallas police Lt. Christina Smith.
How one system works
Charleston police Capt. Gary Tillman said his department's system covers 240 city blocks, an area that is home to about 60,000 residents. Sixteen acoustic sensors mounted on poles and buildings detect muzzle blasts and other loud sounds and transmit them via telephone to a central computer located in the department's dispatch center. Software filters out car backfires, thunder, jackhammers and other neighborhood noise and pinpoints the location of the shooting on a map by coordinating feedback from several sensors. The system is an offshoot of military technology developed during the Gulf War. "It's accurate to about 20 feet," Tillman said. He said a $370,000 federal grant covered the cost of the system and the hiring of several officers to respond specifically to shots spotted on the dispatchers' screen. Officers in Glendale, a Phoenix suburb of 218,000 residents, say their $300,000 system has been a major deterrent to random shooting. Shots on New Year's Eve — the most popular day of the year for random shooters — fell from 106 in 2003 to 39 in 2004 after the monitors were installed.
'Celebratory gunfire'
Officer Silvia Trevino, a spokeswoman for the Houston Police Department, said "celebratory gunfire" is an issue in the city around holidays, but it is not prevalent enough other times of the year to be considered a major problem. Houston does not compile statistics on citizen complaints of shots fired. Smith, the Dallas police lieutenant, said she and other officials are not convinced that a listening system alone will lead to fewer shots. "If we don't have a witness or some other evidence, it won't help us make an arrest," she said. There is no evidence the system leads to increased arrests for random gunfire. That is why Dallas officials say the best solution just might be a system to be activated in Chicago this fall. It combines gunshot detectors with video cameras mounted atop light poles.
Detecting more crimes
Smith said the relatively expensive system was designed to detect and deter all types of crime in high-density areas. Each pod, costing $25,000, covers one city block. Chicago is installing 30 of the heavily encased pods. Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle said that type of system might best be used in Deep Ellum, a sprawling entertainment district east of downtown Dallas that has been beset with shootings, muggings and other street crimes in the past two years. Garcia said her committee and the department are moving to gather proposals from several manufacturers. They expect to apply for federal and private grants to shoulder the cost. "We have more crime per capita than any major city in the country," Garcia said. "If anybody needs help, it's us."
I remember when I used to have to set acoustic sensors in the ghetto. I would have my trusty sensor, you know, and crawl around on my belly, playing the wind and set up sensor decoys trying to outsmart them.
How big of a target are these sensors anyway? It would seem to me that anyone who is careless enough to fire into the air in a populated area would have no qualms about taking out one or more of them.
BANGLIST*
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