Police are apparently trawling gunshot-detecting artificial intelligence to support their narratives

Police departments may frequently be requesting alterations to alerts generated by a gunshot-detecting artificial intelligence surveillance system called ShotSpotter, Vice News reports, citing court documents. The investigation raises questions of whether in some cases, law enforcement is using ShotSpotter to trawl for evidence to support their narratives.

While Vice looked at multiple incidents, the report went into detail about a shooting in Chicago that took place during May 2020. The victim was fatally shot in the head by a man who was subsequently charged with his murder. The suspect maintained that the victim was shot in a drive-by, but the prosecution relied on a key piece of evidence that placed the suspect at a location and time that matched gunfire picked up by ShotSpotter microphones.

But the sensors had initially classified the noise as a firework. Later, though, a ShotSpotter analyst reportedly manually overrode the algorithms and "reclassified" the sound as a gunshot. When the suspect's lawyer raised the issue in court and requested the judge examine whether the forensic evidence was scientifically valid, the prosecution withdrew all ShotSpotter evidence related to the case.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

Vice reports that the case wasn't an anomaly and pointed to multiple testimonies in which a ShotSpotter employee named Paul Greene stated that alerts were changed after the company received requests from multiple police departments to re-examine audio. Greene, who often serves as an expert witness, did not say that the new evidence was fabricated, however. Read more at Vice News.

UPDATE AUG. 31, 2022: This article has been amended to remove a claim that the location of an alleged gunshot was changed by a ShotSpotter employee. Vice has now withdrawn that claim.