Posted on 08/17/2005 3:29:03 AM PDT by Pharmboy
Edited on 08/17/2005 5:10:40 AM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
An acoustic sensor on a lamppost in East Orange, N.J., where the Police Department will start using the sensors next week in an effort to combat gun violence.
EAST ORANGE, N.J., Aug. 16 - The sound of gunshots has become such a routine part of the urban cacophony here that the police say many residents do not even bother to call them anymore.
But starting next week, members of the East Orange Police Department will be able to "hear" the gunshots themselves through a network of high-tech acoustic detectors placed on utility poles and lampposts throughout the city. The system, which cost $300,000, can triangulate the location of gunfire within three to five seconds and relay the information to officers.
"We will be able to respond so much faster to gun violence, in some cases by several minutes," said Jose M. Cordero, the police director. "We needed to find new ways of policing. If we do not change, we are not going to win against crime."
The sensors, which have been used by the military since 1996 to pinpoint the location of snipers but have become available commercially only in the last year, may conjure up Orwellian visions of Big Brother eavesdropping on street-corner conversations. But Mr. Cordero said that the sensors can pick up only "specific acoustic vibrations" associated with gunfire and can distinguish between gunshots and firecrackers...
I wonder if you can incorporate the sensors into the helmets of our soldiers, and then use the sensors in conjunction with some of their portable hardware to triangulate and locate the sources of gun shots all around them.
The more soldiers in range of the unit that collects the sensor data, the more accurate the triangulation. Would help our troops immensely, I imagine.
"We've got so many guns so going off, we can't keep track of 'em! But, we spent $300,000 on problem, and now we know that most of the shorts are coming from the grassy knoll. Our crime problems are practicaly solved."
They should make bullets that have a string connected from the casing to the slug. So that, when someone gets shot, they just have to follow the string, kinda like a trail of bread crumbs, to the killer!
</stupidity>
How can this be??? NJ has some of the strictest gun laws!
This has got to be the basis of an automated sniper system, probably linked to heavy artillery.
I remember reading about this type of system being set up in LA maybe ten years ago.
(steely)
...and at 300k it doesn't seem to be all that expensive for what it can do.
"We will be able to respond so much faster to gun violence, in some cases by several minutes,"
Just like that gun ban in DC, in place since 1974. Yeah, no guns there although I wouldn't drive through DC after dark.
From the law of unintended consequences, I predict this will drive the popularity of illegal silencers.
When I am in SouthEast DC after dark, I take great comfort in the knowledge that absolutely no guns are anywhere within the city limits.
BRRRRRRRRRRR! SE DC after dark? YEOW! Not without a platoon of heavily-armed Marines around me.
And the last sound many of them will record is the shot that takes it out.
I'm sure $300k is less than the early systems went for, but technology has gotten a lot cheaper since then, too.
For $300k, someone's making good money on this.
(steely)
This is a waste of taxpayer money. New Jersey should just pass some more laws making guns even more illegal. That doesn't cost hardly a cent and will be just as effective.
From what I understand that was the fate of the video crime cameras in Chicago...
I remember that, too. I haven't heard anything about it since then.
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