Coatesville police, district attorney and vendor brief school board on extending ShotSpotter to high‑school campus

Coatesville City Police Chief Jack Laufer told the school operations committee on Nov. 11 that the city has been using ShotSpotter since Sept. 25 and asked the district to allow the system’s coverage area to be adjusted to include the high‑school main campus at no cost to the district. "We have a little over 20 incidents of reported gunfire in the city," Laufer said, adding that the system assisted officers in making two arrests and enabled officers to render life‑saving aid to a gun‑shot victim before the first 911 call.

District Attorney Chris Deberina Serena supported the request, saying he had used the technology during prior work as a federal prosecutor and that extending coverage to the school parking lot and contiguous campus areas would improve response and evidence gathering. "I think it's roughly six [microphones] — but as many as we need to get coverage in the area so that we can better protect children," Serena said.

Representatives from the vendor and parent company — identified in the meeting as Josh Jada of SoundThinking (the ShotSpotter customer‑success director assigned to Coatesville) and Tihar Moore, director of community engagement — explained how the system works. Jada said sensors are tuned to detect loud ‘bangs, booms and pops’ and triangulate location by timing differences in sound arrival; human analysts review candidate alerts before they go to police. Jada said sensor audio is retained briefly (he stated about 24 hours for sensor buffers) and that audio clips around a confirmed event are preserved for investigative use. "We don't listen for voices," he said. "We listen for gunfire in places where it should not be and nothing else."

Board members asked about privacy, accuracy and ongoing costs. Vendor speakers described a two‑stage review (AI prescreening followed by a human analyst) and a 95–97% accuracy band after review, and said the current funding model covers the school inclusion without new expense to the district for an initial period. Committee members pressed for details on how long grant funding is committed; the presenters said pricing is locked for three years and the city has commitments covering roughly 18 months of operating cost but described a plan to continue pursuing county and state funding.

Committee members also asked how school‑based officers would receive alerts and whether school security would be trained. Chief Laufer said school police already have the application and will receive the same alerts and training as city officers.

The committee did not take a final vote on a contract at the meeting; members directed staff to draft an agreement with the city, the district attorney’s office and the vendor and to bring a preliminary agreement back to the committee for review in January.