By Haberman, C., Ruhland, E., Frank, J., Kelsay, J. & Desmond, J.

This report outlines the results of surveys assessing citizens’ views of the Cincinnati Police Department (CPD) and its response to shootings in Cincinnati’s Price Hill neighborhood before and after the implementation of ShotSpotter, an acoustic gunshot detection system. An acoustic gunshot detection system uses sensors to detect gun fire. For ShotSpotter, the sensors listen for gunshot noises. When gunshot-like noises are detected, the sound waves are analyzed and reviewed by technicians at ShotSpotter’s headquarters who determine if the sound was a gunshot or something else, such as fireworks. If the noise is determined to be a gunshot, then police are dispatched to the scene. The precise shooting scene is located by triangulating gunshot sounds across sensors. The time from gunshot to dispatch is roughly 60 seconds.1 ShotSpotter allows police to quickly respond to gunfire incidents, even if residents do not call 911, to make an arrest at the scene. Research suggests roughly 88% of gunshots recorded by ShotSpotter are not reported to the police by residents.2 It follows that implementing ShotSpotter may improve residents’ perceptions of CPD and its response to shootings because police are now responding to all gunfire incidents. This report assesses if that was the case when ShotSpotter was implemented in Cincinnati’s Price Hill neighborhood in July 2019.   

Cincinnati, OH: Institute of Crime Science, University of Cincinnati, 2020. 17p.

By Mike McLively and Brittany Nieto

Oakland, considered for many years to be among the most dangerous cities in America, has cut its annual shootings and homicides nearly in half since 2012. Now, city leaders and activists from around the country are traveling to Oakland to learn from this remarkable success. Oakland gives us reason to hope that reducing gun violence in our most impacted communities is possible, and a basic framework for how to get there. In 2012, after several failures and facing great pressure from community activists, Oakland city leaders committed to launching a citywide violence reduction strategy, known as Oakland Ceasefire, with the help of technical experts from the California Partnership for Safe Communities (CPSC). Oakland Ceasefire is an ongoing partnership between community members, social service providers, and law enforcement officials, who work together to reduce violence, build police-community trust, and improve outcomes for high-risk individuals. The strategy has five main components: Analysis of violent incidents and trends, referred to as a problem analysis, to identify individuals at the highest risk of participating in serious violence. Oakland’s problem analysis revealed several misconceptions about the city’s violence dynamics. It also showed that only 400 individuals—just 0.1% of Oakland’s total population—were at the highest risk for engaging in serious violence at any given time. Oakland Ceasefire partners intervene with this population. Respectful, in-person communications with high-risk individuals to warn about the risks of ongoing violence and provide a genuine offer of assistance. With Oakland Ceasefire, these communications primarily take the form of call-ins, interventions in which stakeholders communicate with small groups of those most at risk of serious violence, and custom notifications, a personalized method of heading off imminent violence. Relationship-based social services are provided to high-risk individuals through the Oakland Unite network of community-based organizations. Oakland Unite is a unique city agency that uses taxpayer money to fund organizations that provide services like intensive mentoring, economic and educational training, and direct assistance to victims of violence and their families. Narrowly focused law enforcement actions by the Oakland Police Department’s (OPD) Ceasefire Section, in addition to ongoing, department-wide training in the principles of procedural justice and other strategies to improve police-community relationships. Since reforming its approach to violence, OPD has seen a dramatic increase in its homicide solve rate, while use-of-force incidents and complaints against the department are on the decline. An intentional management structure built around regular communication between Oakland Ceasefire partners and city leaders to stay on top of changing violence dynamics and track progress toward yearly violence reduction goals. Regular meetings include weekly shooting reviews, bimonthly coordination meetings, and performance reviews led by Oakland’s mayor.     

Giffords Law Center, Faith in Action, and the Black and Brown Gun Violence Prevention Consortium, 2019. 107p/  

 By Julie A. Ward,  Javier A. Cepeda, Dylan B. Jackson, Cassandra K. Crifasi

Much research on shootings by police has focused on urban jurisdictions, but most U.S. law enforcement agencies are not located in cities. Prior research suggests that rates of fatal shootings by police are comparable between urban and non-urban areas. Yet, shooting characteris tics across the urban−rural continuum are unknown. This study describes and compares fatal and nonfatal injurious shootings by officers in U.S. urban, suburban, and rural areas from 2015 to 2020. Methods: Characteristics of fatal and nonfatal injurious shootings by police were abstracted from Gun Violence Archive. In 2023−2024, using ZIP-code and county-based rurality designations, the national distribution, incidence, and characteristics of injurious shootings by police were compared across urban, suburban, and rural areas of the U.S. Results: Rates of injurious shootings in rural areas approached or exceeded those of urban rates. As rurality increased, proportionately more injurious shootings involved single responders, sheriffs, or multiple agency types. Across the urban−rural continuum, characteristics of precipitating incidents were similar. Injurious shootings were most frequently preceded by domestic violence incidents, traffic stops, or shots-fired reports; co-occurring behavioral health needs were common. After accounting for local demographic differences, Black, indigenous, and Hispanic residents were injured at higher rates than White residents in all examined areas. Conclusions: Shootings by police represent an overlooked and inequitable source of injury in rural areas. Broadly similar incident characteristics suggest potential for wide-reaching reforms. To prevent injuries, crisis prevention, dispatch, and response systems must assure proportionate rural area coverage. In addition, legislative prevention and accountability measures should include sheriffs' offices for optimal rural-area impact. 

AmJPrev Med 2024;000(000):1−9. © 2024