WATCH: The latest news updates on DPTV with Molly Hughes
A barrage of shots rattled multiple inner-city Denver neighborhoods Wednesday night as the Denver Police Department tested a new system that detects gunfire.
On Thursday, the police department apologized for failing to give more widespread notification of its testing of the Shot Spotter system but said it was a necessary, one-time step in fielding a new technology designed to curb gun violence in the city.
Although the police department said it notified neighbors in the immediate vicinity of the testing, many who heard the shots were scared and confused. They also criticized the timing, because there had been a drive-by shooting Monday near Bruce Randolph Avenue and St. Paul Street.
“I didn’t know what to think,” said Sean Cowans, who lives near Nairobi Park at 35th Avenue and Madison Street. “They should’ve given somebody a heads-up on what they were doing. With this drive-by shooting we just had, people were on edge already.”
First in state to use system
Denver became the first agency in Colorado to field Shot Spotter when the system went live Thursday afternoon, said Capt. Steven Carter, who is managing the Shot Spotter project for the police department. The previous night’s testing allowed the department to calibrate the system’s sensors and software.
Police fired multiple shots between 9 p.m. and 11:15 p.m. from three locations: the 3500 block of Cook Street, the 3300 block of Marion Street and 2480 Downing Street, Carter said.
The department used specially designed rounds that pack the same amount of gunpowder as a regular bullet but have projectiles that disintegrate upon discharge, Carter said.
The department fired into a ballistic trap and had ballistic shields and blankets around the trap.
Police handed out fliers and went door to door in the immediate areas where the shots would be fired, said Sonny Jackson, a department spokesman.
Notification also was posted on the social media network Next Door.
However, the department did not account for the sound traveling for blocks around heavily populated neighborhoods, Jackson said. In at least one case, people reported hearing the gunshots nearly a mile away.
As result, neighbors began calling the police department, while others posted their frustration on Twitter.
“We didn’t realize how loud it would amplify into other neighborhoods,” Jackson said. “You can look at it in hindsight and say we should have done this or that. We didn’t mean any discourtesy to the community.”
Shot Spotter helps police departments pinpoint the location within 27 yards of where a gun is fired, Carter said.
“That’s pretty … close,” he said.
Pinpointing locations
After shots are recorded and verified, the location is pinpointed by a red dot on digital maps inside patrol cars and the dispatch center, Carter said.
“The officers will go to the red dot and will know they are going into a violent situation,” he said.
The technology also can tell police how many shots were fired and how far apart they came, Carter said. It should help police get to victims and suspects more quickly. And, it will help investigators find shell casings, which can be used to track the shooter and possibly link a suspect to other gun crimes, he said.
In recent years, Denver has been fielding more and more technology to aid crime-fighting. It has fielded the HALO camera system across the city, which records high-resolution video but not audio. This year, the department will buy body cameras for its patrol officers.
The system is part of a larger, multi-jurisdiction effort to curb gun violence in the metro area. The department is working with Aurora, Lakewood and the U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agency to identify guns and shooters who are involved in multiple crimes.
Not deployed citywide
Shot Spotter will not be deployed citywide, but Carter and Jackson declined to say which neighborhoods would have it.
The department needed to test the system at night when the city is quieter and when shootings are more likely to take place, Carter said.
“We picked a time when we thought we would have the best acoustic setting and at a time when most gunshots are going to occur,” he said.
Wednesday night’s test had been scheduled for more than a week, and multiple people were traveling from out of state for it, he said.
Chase Pickard, who lives in an apartment building in Five Points at 29th Street and Glenarm Place, said the shots startled him and a neighbor walking a dog. He had no notification of the test shots and didn’t know what was happening until he saw a police department tweet about testing equipment.
“They didn’t do the best job of notifying people, and it’s not the greatest neighborhood with those recent shootings,” Pickard said.
Once Pickard heard an explanation of the Shot Spotter system from The Denver Post, he said, “That’s really neat.”
Kim Owens, who lives in the Cole neighborhood, said an officer had told her about Shot Spotter a few weeks ago after a shooting at a neighborhood park. Gunshots “freak us out,” she said.
“You don’t really know what to do,” Owens said. “By the time you call a cop and he gets here, it’s too late. The fact they are installing these devices is a good thing.”
Noelle Phillips: 303-954-1661, nphillips@denverpost.com or twitter.com/Noelle_Phillips
Updated: January 9, 2015 at 10:28 a.m.: This story has been corrected to reflect the Shot Spotter helps police departments pinpoint the location within 27 yards of where a gun is fired.
