By Vicky Mei , Felix Owusu, Sam Quinney, Anita Ravishankar, Daniel Sebastian
In response to the increase in violent crime and specifically gun crime in Winston-Salem, the Winston-Salem Police Department (WSPD) established a crime gun intelligence center. The WSPD Crime Gun Intelligence Center activities were supported by the Fiscal Year 2019 Crime Gun Intelligence Center (CGIC) grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance. To meet the requirements under this grant, the WSPD CGIC Initiative was created. This initiative has been supported by a cohesive infrastructure that includes technology, specialized investigation, ballistic evidence collection & processing, and partnership with external agencies. The majority of these initiative components resulted from WSPD’s CGIC Strategic Action Plan, which created an actionable design for implementing key CGIC elements. The Strategic Action Plan included establishing policies and procedures, additional training information sharing, and new personnel. The Strategic Action Plan was reviewed and approved by an external team of training and technical assistance providers who partner with the Bureau of Justice Assistance. During the grant period, progress was monitored through monthly meetings attended by WSPD personnel and team members from the technical assistance providers. This report provides a chronological narrative of the grant-funded WSPD CGIC Initiative along with data and statistics relevant to the project. All CGIC data and statistics were collected and maintained by WSPD’s crime analyst assigned to this project. The original project period for this grant was October 2019 through September 2022. The site visit from technical assistance providers for developing the Strategic Action Plan and the procurement of a gunshot detection system (per federal and local procurement requirements) took several months. Because of this, the tracking of statistics was not able to begin until August 2021 when the project was fully operational. Furthermore, because several performance metrics had not been tracked before the awarding of this grant, and therefore pre-award and post-award data was not available for those metrics. Among the key findings in this report are: • Consistent performance measurement. The recommendations addressed in the Strategic Action Plan, along with the required tracking and reporting of performance metrics necessitated the need to track and capture data, which gave WSPD opportunities to re-examine its approach to gun violence based on this data. Metrics in this analysis report will allow the Department to continue revising and developing policies and procedures that will enhance gun violence reduction efforts. • Improved case load summaries and overall investigation. The CGIC Initiative has created a more streamlined and cohesive approach to incident response, investigation, and the possible prosecution of offenders. This grant has allowed additional technology, regular intelligence sharing with external partners, and additional personnel dedicated to all aspects of this initiative, including investigative work, administration, and the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN). With additional personnel dedicated to NIBIN activities, WSPD has had consistently high percentages of NIBIN acquisitions within 10 days of the offense. Between January 2020 and September 2023, 38 of the 86 months reported 80% or higher for acquisitions entered within the 10-day mark. • Benefits from the use of a gunshot detection system. WSPD has been using ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology since August 2021. Performance data shows multiple benefits from the use of this technology: ▫ Enhanced response. Dispatch delay was significantly less with ShotSpotter alerts compared to Priority 2 calls. Dispatch delay for ShotSpotter alerts averaged only 3.85 minutes, compared to 10.7 minutes with Priority 2 Calls. Officer travel time for ShotSpotter alerts was faster, averaging 6.25 minutes compared to 9.08 minutes with Priority 2 calls. An average of 44.4 minutes were spent by officers at crime scenes generated by ShotSpotter, compared to 37.10 minutes spent at crime scenes prompted by Priority 2 calls. ▫ Increase in reported gunshot incidents. The majority of gunshot incident responses within the ShotSpotter coverage area were initiated from ShotSpotter alerts versus citizen 911 calls. Of the 3,014 ShotSpotter alerts between August 2021 and September 2023, only 644 of these alerts were also reported via citizen 911 calls. To put this data into percentages, only 21.4% of the ShotSpotter alerts between August 2021 and September 2023 also had citizen 911 calls. ▫ Increase in evidence collection & NIBIN Leads. ShotSpotter’s technology of “pointing” to where shots are fired has made it easier to locate ballistic evidence. The increase in evidence collection is also a result of a more thorough processing of crime scenes. The increase in evidence collection also resulted in more NIBIN leads and connecting incidents that would not have been linked without the evidence. ▫ Lives saved. In two instances, had the ShotSpotter system not alerted law enforcement to the shooting, the victims would most likely have died, since neither of these incidents were reported by citizen 911 calls. When officers responded to the ShotSpotter alerts, they were able to render aid and request EMS, which ensured both victims were transported to a local hospital, where the person was treated for (and survived) life-threatening injuries. ▫ Community Engagement is a fundamental tenet within the guiding philosophy of the Winston-Salem Police Department. WSPD actively encourages the community’s involvement in addressing the prevalent issue of violence. Under the CGIC Initiative, the Department has embraced a multifaceted approach that implements various technologies and establishes numerous avenues for community involvement in combating crime. With the integration of ShotSpotter, officers are now promptly informed of gunfire in the coverage area, which means a significant increase in police responsiveness, approximately 80% more responses than before. Consequently, residents who may have hesitated to report gunfire are witnessing a greater police presence each time such incidents are detected. Moreover, officers, upon response, are actively engaging with residents by exiting their vehicles and initiating discussions about the incidents. This approach has led to a notable upswing in positive police-citizen interactions during times of heightened gun violence in the community. ▫ Cost Benefits. A 2022 report presented to Winston-Salem City Council estimated the use of the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system may save the community between $5 million and $8 million annually. This is based on an annual implementation cost of $230,000 - $350,000. Based on these estimates, savings would be a return of between $15 and $25 for each dollar spent. (A cost savings analysis has not yet been completed for 2023.)
Washington DC: The Lab @ DC, Office of the City Administrator, 2019. 67p.
