Gunfire locator

System that detects and conveys the location of gunfire or other weapon fire

A gunfire locator or gunshot detection system is a system that detects and conveys the location of gunfire or other weapon fire using acoustic, vibration, optical, or potentially other types of sensors, as well as a combination of such sensors. These systems are used by law enforcement, security, military, government offices, schools and businesses to identify the source and, in some cases, the direction of gunfire and/or the type of weapon fired. Most systems possess three main components:

An array of microphones or sensors (accelerometers, infrared detectors, etc) either co located or geographically dispersed
A processing unit
A user interface that displays gunfire alerts

In general categories, there are environmental packaged systems for primarily outdoor use (both military and civilian/urban) which are high cost and then also lower cost consumer/industrial packaged systems for primarily indoor use. Systems used in urban settings integrate a geographic information system so the display includes a map and address location of each incident. Some indoor gunfire detection systems utilize detailed floor plans with detector location overlay to show shooter locations on an app or web based interface.

Determination of the origin of gunfire by sound was conceived before World War I where it was first used operationally (see: Artillery sound ranging). In 1990, a unique algorithm was used as a starting point : Metravib defence, working with Délégation Générale pour l’Armement (DGA) – the French defence procurement agency – studied the acoustic signature of submarines. The DGA & Section Technique de l’Armée de Terre (STAT), the French Army’s engineering section
subsequently commissioned Metravib D. to find a solution for shot detection, a way to assist soldiers and peacekeepers who come under fire from snipers without knowing precisely where the shots were coming from. In the early 1990s, the areas of East Palo Alto and eastern Menlo Park, California, were besieged with crime. During 1992 there were 42 homicides in East Palo Alto, which resulted in East Palo Alto becoming the murder capital of the United States. The Menlo Park police department was often called upon to investigate when residents reported gunshots; however there was no way to determine their source from scattered 911 calls. In late 1992, John C. Lahr, a PhD seismologist at the nearby United States Geological Survey, approached the Menlo Park police department to ask if they would be interested in applying seismological techniques to locate gunshots. Others had also approached the Menlo Park police department suggesting ways to help the police by means of gunshot location systems. The police chief arranged a meeting with local inventors and entrepreneurs who had expressed an interest in the problem. At that time there were no solutions to tracking gunshots, only a desire to do so. One key attendee was Robert Showen, a Stanford Research Institute employee and expert in acoustics. Lahr decided to go ahead with his plans to demonstrate the feasibility of locating the gunshots, relying on his background in the earthquake location techniques and monitoring in Alaska. A network consisting of one wired and four radio telemetered microphones was established, with his home in eastern Menlo Park becoming the command center. Lahr modified the software typically used for locating earthquakes and recorded the data at a higher sample rate than is used for regional seismology. After gunshots were heard, Lahr would determine their location while his wife monitored the police radio for independent confirmation of their source. Using this system, Lahr was able to demonstrate to the police and others that this technique was highly effective, as the system was able to locate gunshots occurring within the array to within a few tens of meters. Although additional techniques from the seismic world were known that could better automate the system and increase its reliability, those improvements were outside the scope of this feasibility study.

Gunshot location systems generally require one or more sensing modalities to detect either the fact that a weapon has been fired or to detect the projectile fired by the weapon. To date, sound, vibration and visual or infrared light have successfully been used as sensing technologies. Both applications can be implemented to detect gunfire under static and dynamic conditions. Most police related systems can be permanently mounted, mapped and correlated as the sensors remain in place for long periods. Military and SWAT actions, on the other hand, operate in more dynamic environments requiring a fast setup time or a capability to operate while the sensors are on move.

Acoustic systems "listen" for either the bullet bow shockwave (the sound either of the projectile or bullet as it passes through the air), the sound of the muzzle blast of the weapon when it fires the projectile, or a combination of both. Due to their ability to sense at great distances, to sense in a non line of sight manner, and the relatively low bandwidth required for transmitting sensor telemetry data, systems deployed for law enforcement, public safety and homeland security in the United States have primarily been based on acoustic techniques. Acoustic only based systems typically generate their alerts a few seconds slower than optical sensing systems because they rely on the propagation of sound waves. Therefore, the sound reaching a sensor 1 mile from its origin will take almost 5 seconds. A few seconds to accommodate pickup from distant sensors and to discern the number of rounds fired, often an indicator of incident severity, are both tolerable and a drastic improvement for typical police dispatching scenarios when compared against the several minutes that elapse from when an actual discharge occurs to the cumulative time of several minutes that pass when a person decides to place a 9 1 1 call and that information is captured, processed, and dispatched to patrol officers. Because such systems have arrays of highly sensitive microphones that are continuously active, there have been concerns over privacy with this broad ability to record conversations without the knowledge of those being recorded (this is "collateral eavesdropping", because capturing conversations is only an inadvertent capability of the system's design, and law enforcement agencies have stated that the recording happens only after shots have been detected.)

Optical or electro optical systems detect either the physical phenomenon of the muzzle flash of a bullet being fired or the heat caused by the friction of the bullet as it moves through the air. Such systems require a line of sight to the area where the weapon is being fired or the projectile while it is in motion. Although a general line of sight to the shot event is required, detections are sometimes available as the infrared flash event bounces off surrounding structures. Just like acoustic based systems, electro optical systems can generally be degraded by specialized suppression devices that minimize their sound or optical signatures. Optical and electro optical systems have seen success in military environments where immediacy of response is critical and because they generally do not need careful location registration as is generally the case for more permanently installed "civil" crime fighting systems. Just as acoustic systems require more than one microphone to locate gunshots, most electro optical systems require more than one sensor when covering 360 degrees. Acoustic and optical sensors can be co located and their data can be fused thereby enabling the gunshot location processing to have a more exact discharge time that can be used to calculate the distance of the discharge to the sensors with the greatest possible precision. Optical systems are (essentially) not limited to the number of individual shots being fired or the number of different shooters shooting simultaneously, allowing optical based sensing to easily declare and locate shooters conducting ambushes that employ multiple shooters, shooting from multiple locations during the same time period. The combination of both approaches (acoustic and infrared) assists in overcoming each system's own limitations while improving the overall capability to eliminate false declarations of gunshots and/or ambiguous declaration locations. Even when these combined systems are employed, shots fired from far enough away will not be detected because the amount of gunshot signal (both acoustic and Infrared) eventually fades into the background signals. For acoustic systems that require the supersonic shock wave for location determination, the bullet must still be traveling at supersonic speed when it passes the sensor, and it must pass the sensor within the lateral span of the shock wave. For infrared sensing of the flash upon a weapon's discharge, the bullet path is not determined. Combining these two approaches improves the capability under various conditions anticipated in a combat scenario. Both optical and acoustic sensors have been used from vehicles while on the move in urban and rural environments. These sensors have been tested on airborne and waterborne platforms as well. Electro optical detection systems currently tested (2011) can process the incoming shot signatures at very fast speeds, providing an excellent method not only to discriminate between weapon firings and other non gunshot events but also to identify categories, characteristics, and sometimes specific weapon types automatically.

Many techniques can be used to discriminate gunfire (also referred to as "classifying gunfire") from similar noises such as cars backfiring, fireworks, or the sound of a helicopter passing overhead. Analysis of the spectral content of the sound, its envelope, and other heuristics are also commonly used methods to classify whether loud, sudden sounds are gunfire. Identifying the source of the sounds can be subjective, and companies such as ShotSpotter revise their records based upon information they receive from police agencies, so that a sound originally classified by the automated system as the beat of helicopter rotors has been reported first as three, then four, and finally as the sound of five separate gunshots. As a result, this technology has been rejected in court cases as non scientific for the purpose of legal evidence. It is meant to be an investigative tool rather than a source of primary legal evidence. which means that law enforcement agencies and their crime analysts have incomplete data regarding true activity levels and patterns. With a wide area acoustic surveillance based approach combined with a persistent repository of gunfire activity (i. e., a database), agencies have closer to 100% activity data that can be analyzed for patterns and trends to drive directed patrols and intelligence led policing. Additional benefits include aiding investigators to find more forensic evidence to solve crimes and provide to prosecutors to strengthen court cases resulting in a higher conviction rate. With the accuracy of a gunshot location system and the ability to geo reference to a specific street address, versus a dearth of information that typically is the case when citizens report gunfire incidents to 9 1 1, agencies can also infer shooters by comparing with known criminal locations, including those on parole and probation; investigators can also at times infer intended victims and hence predict and prevent reprisals. Gunshot location systems have been used domestically in urban areas since the mid 1990s by a growing list of cities and municipalities that are embracing gunshot location systems as a mission essential tool in their arsenal for fighting violent crime. Federal and homeland security agencies too have embraced gunshot location systems and their benefits; notably the FBI successfully used a ShotSpotter gunshot location system during the 2003–2004 Ohio highway sniper attacks, in conjunction with the Franklin County Sheriff. The technology was tested in Redwood Village, a neighborhood of Redwood City, CA, in April 1996. Through 2007, the manufacturer touted the device as having benefits, but local officials were split as to its effectiveness. It is effective in reducing random gunfire. Surveys conducted for the DOJ showed it was most effective as a "perception" of action. A ShotSpotter system installed in Washington, DC, has been successfully relied upon to locate gunfire in the area of coverage. The Washington, DC Police Department reported in 2008 that it had helped locate 62 victims of violent crime and aided in 9 arrests. In addition to assaults, the system detected a large amount of "random" gunfire, all totaling 50 gunshots a week in 2007. Based on the system's success, the police department decided to expand the program to cover nearly a quarter of the city. As of 2016, detection systems were deployed to a number of cities, including Baltimore, Maryland Bellwood, Illinois; Birmingham, Alabama; Boston; Canton, Ohio; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Chicago; Hartford; Kansas City; Los Angeles; Milwaukee; Minneapolis; New Bedford, Massachusetts; Oakland; Omaha; San Francisco; Springfield, Massachusetts; Washington, D. C.; Wilmington, North Carolina; New York City; Integration with cameras that point in the direction of gunfire when detected is also implemented. San Antonio, Texas discontinued its $500,000 ShotSpotter service, after finding it had only resulted in four arrests and seven weapons confiscated in the 15 months it has been in operation. In August 2017, the United States Secret Service began testing the use of gunshot detection technology to protect the White House and the United States Naval Observatory.

Determination of the origin of gunfire by sound was conceived before World War I where it was first used operationally. Early sound based systems were used primarily for large weapons. Weapons detection and location systems and counter sniper systems have been deployed by the US Department of Defense as well as by the militaries of other countries. Acoustic threat detection systems include the Unattended Transient Acoustic MASINT Sensor (UTAMS), Serenity Payload and FireFly, which were developed by the Army Research Laboratory.

In South Africa's Kruger National Park, gunfire locators are being used to prevent rhino poaching.

Soter gunshot locator project is a community effort that uses open source hardware, cloud technology, machine learning, and 3D printing to build inexpensive gunshot detectors capable of locating and classifying gunfire in urban, public, and school spaces within seconds.

Stop Fish Bombing USA, a project under the fiscal sponsorship of Earth Island Institute, has adapted ShotSpotter technology with hydrophones to combat fish bombing on coral reefs in Sabah, Malaysia.