ShotSpotter program returning to Suffolk County

Suffolk County will revive a gunshot detection program in 11 communities after the county legislature on Tuesday approved $1.8 million in funding for the initiative.

ShotSpotter uses acoustics and GPS technology to pinpoint gunfire.

The legislature voted 17-0 on Tuesday to provide $1.5 million slated for the county’s public campaign finance program, which was killed.

Discretionary funds will provide another $300,000 for the ShotSpotter program, said Kevin McCaffrey (R-Lindenhurst), presiding officer of the county legislature.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney was among those who welcomed the vote.

“ShotSpotter is not a panacea,” Tierney said Tuesday. “But it is going to allow us to effectively deal with gun violence in our underserved communities.”

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said he would sign the bill.

“Public safety is always our top priority and ShotSpotter will provide the SCPD with another tool to keep our communities safe,” Bellone said in a statement.

ShotSpotter was launched in Suffolk in late 2011.

Bellone eliminated funding for the program in 2018 after police officials and others asserted the technology was not effective.

Irma Solis, of the Suffolk Chapter Director of the NYCLU, said in a statement: “A number of cities have stopped using ShotSpotter because of the technology’s ineffectiveness and its impact on communities of color, which already disproportionately bear the brunt of a heavy police presence. Suffolk County's own reporting demonstrates how unreliable ShotSpotter is. The last thing we need is to spend more money in faulty technology that disproportionately impacts communities of color.”

In April, the county legislature, at the urging of some community members and others, directed the county police department to reexamine use of the tool in light of technological advancements.

Bellone has said he changed his position due to the advancements in ShotSpotter's technology.

Funding for the new ShotSpotter program became available after the county legislature, which Republicans control, in July overrode Bellone’s veto of GOP-sponsored legislation to end the public campaign finance program.

The campaign finance program was designed to use revenue from Suffolk Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. to provide matching campaign funds to candidates running for local office who agreed to fundraising parameters.

The resolution to fund ShotSpotter also abolished the position of campaign finance board director.

“While I’m not necessarily happy about the funding mechanism … I’m happy to co-sponsor this bill because we need this technology in our communities,” said Minority Leader Jason Richberg (D-West Babylon), who had proposed a police department study of the ShotSpotter issue.

Backers said the technology will be used in Huntington Station, North Amityville, Wyandanch, Brentwood, Bay Shore, Central Islip, Coram, Gordon heights, North Bellport, Shirley and Mastic Beach.

With mothers of gun violence victims by his side during a news conference after the vote, Tierney said the gun detection tool will offer greater protection in those areas.

Tierney said there were 365 shootings in Suffolk County in 2021 with 128 victims, 32 of whom died.

Tierney said ShotSpotter technology could prevent overpolicing by giving the precise location of gunshots.

“Police won’t need to blanket a neighborhood to find shooting locations because they will be sent directly to them,” Tierney said.

“It also means that every time a shot gets fired in these communities, there will be a response from law enforcement,” Tierney said.

McCaffrey said funding for law enforcement initiatives would be a priority moving forward.

“This legislature now is going to be the one that's going to make public safety a priority,” he said during the news conference with Tierney.

“You're going to see it in our budgets you're going to see it n hiring new police and all the technologies needed to do their jobs,” McCaffrey said.

By Vera Chinese

vera.chinese@newsday.com@VeraChinese

Vera Chinese covers Suffolk County government and politics. She joined Newsday in 2017 after working as an editor for the East End lifestyle publication northforker and a general assignment reporter for the New York Daily News.