New York City Police Department

The NYPD's ShotSpotter impact and use policy, updated on 4 February 2026, describes a gunshot detection system manufactured by SoundThinking, Inc., whose sensors 'listen' for gunshot-like sounds; when at least three sensors detect one, the data goes to the ShotSpotter Incident Review Center, where trained human analysts review it before an alert reaches the NYPD. The vendor's engineers decide where sensors are placed. The policy's revision summary records that a statement that ShotSpotter does not use artificial intelligence and machine learning was removed; the policy does not say that it does. The start date comes from the New York City Office of Technology and Innovation's algorithmic tools report for 2024, which lists ShotSpotter as first used by the NYPD in March 2015. The New York City Comptroller's audit of the NYPD's oversight of its ShotSpotter agreement, announced on 20 June 2024, says the system uses over 2,000 acoustic sensors across the five boroughs and that the contract was due to expire in December 2024. The audit found that alerts identified confirmed shootings 13 per cent of the time and that over the eight months reviewed in 2022 and 2023 unconfirmed shootings ranged from 80 to 92 per cent of alerts. The NYPD rejected three of the five recommendations, including declining renewal without a fuller evaluation and publishing more data. In a press release dated 18 February 2025, SoundThinking announced a three-year renewal with the NYPD worth about $21.8 million; that is a company statement. At the City Council Committee on Public Safety hearing on 19 February 2025, according to an automated transcript on citymeetings.nyc, Deputy Commissioner Michael Gerber said the three tools the NYPD reports on annually are Patternizr, ShotSpotter and facial recognition, that 'these are technologies that use AI in some form', and that 'This is not AI predictive policing'.