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Mooresville police outline ShotSpotter purchase and drone, camera integration to speed gunshot response
Summary
Mooresville police described plans to deploy ShotSpotter gunshot-detection technology alongside Flock cameras and first-responder drones to provide earlier alerts and immediate aerial views; the chief said the system can notify officers before 911 calls arrive and that the various systems integrate for faster response.
The Town of Mooresville’s police chief told commissioners on Sept. 10 the department will deploy ShotSpotter gunshot-detection sensors and integrate them with recently installed Flock cameras and an imminent drone program to detect and respond to shootings faster.
"ShotSpotter has been around for 25 or 30 years," the chief said, adding that the technology acts as an early-warning system because many gunshots go unreported by civilian 911 callers. "It'll send it out as soon as the shot is heard. We respond to that. So we're getting to these calls now long before anybody calls." The chief described a case last year in which officers received a single 911 call about an incident 15 minutes after multiple shots were fired.
Commissioners discussed pairing ShotSpotter detections with on-site drones. The chief confirmed the town’s drone program and Flock camera network integrate with ShotSpotter and with officer devices: "The drones are first responders ... They can be anywhere in the city in a minute and a half long before any of us can get there," he said. "Every officer can pull it up on their smartphone, see what they're driving into, see the area that they're coming into."
Commissioner Weston and others praised earlier demonstrations and noted the system’s acoustic triangulation can distinguish backfires from gunshots and can narrow location to a backyard or smaller area, potentially aiding investigations and arrests. Commissioners said they view the work as proactive policing and credited the department for pursuing an integrated response stack.
The chief and commissioners discussed privacy and accuracy only briefly in the meeting; no privacy policy or procurement vote was recorded in the transcript. Staff said the system will be focused on neighborhoods with rising gunshot reports and will be integrated with the town’s other public-safety technologies.
The discussion did not record a formal purchase vote; procurement, precise deployment locations, operating procedures and privacy safeguards remain pending items for staff and the police department to present to the board.
