Sanders Applauds Gunshot Technology Coming to the Rockaways; Says it Should Have Happened Sooner

State Senator James Sanders Jr. (D-Rochdale Village) today applauded Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton for expanding the ShotSpotter program to cover more parts of the city, including the Rockaways, but says the gunshot alert and analysis system should have been implemented in his district sooner. 

Sanders, a visionary, saw the importance of such gunshot detecting technology more than a decade ago, particularly in areas around some NYCHA housing where high levels of crime had been reported. He set aside money in the budget during his time as a City Council Member for its implementation, but said it went nowhere under the old administration. 

"It's a fantastic program, but think of how many lives could have been saved and how many bad guys we could have taken off the street, if we had done this 12 years ago," Sanders said. "Sadly, the old police commissioner had no faith in it, but today we have been vindicated."

The ShotSpotter system can triangulate the location of a gunshot to within 25 meters of where it was fired, according to the Mayor's Office, and sends an alert to the NYPD, which also includes information such as the number of shots fired and the direction of the shooter's movement.