Baton Rouge, La.

The Batton Rouge Police Department, Louisiana, has recently canceled its contract with the company that provides technology for the detection of hearing rifles after the necessary cuts for the New Year’s New Year budget.

While the technology called Shotspotter has been used by the 2007 City Police Department, Batton Rouge police chief TJ Morse said the degree of success has decreased against the backdrop of a shift of hot spots, the lawyer said.

In addition, Morse said the Shotspotter covers only part of the 80 square miles in the city and that moving sensors for the observation of new ones, with higher crimes, would be expensive in addition to the $ 400,000 annual expenses. When challenging the task of reducing nearly $ 9 million from the Department of 2025, due to the transfer of tax revenue to other parishes in the area, the decision was taken in December to reduce Shotspotter, the WBRZ Baton Rouge reported, and the abbreviation was in force Since January. 1

District prosecutor of the city, Hilar Moore, said Shotspotter has assisted the Baton Rouge police station with criminal investigations over the years, and it will soon be seen that the technology is expanding, the lawyer reports. But its effectiveness proved to be doubtful: in December 2024, only 42% of the 470 rifles reported in the city were discovered by the technology, according to data received by the lawyer from the District Prosecutor’s Office.

This statistics are on the basis of the data collected to present Shotspotter in the city after its deployment in 2007.

“Shotspotter technology is good but limited,” Morse said, according to the lawyer. “This brings us to an area where a rifle has happened and that’s it.”

Baton Rouge is not the only city that has recently canceled its contract with technology against the background of its efficiency issues. The Little Rock City Board, Arkansas, voted last week against an extension of its contract with Shotspotter after disappointing how the work of the technology, which costs $ 290,000 in two years, according to Ression magazine.

Last May, Houston Mayor John Whitmire also announced plans to cancel the city’s partnership with Stotspotter, calling the trick, a good feeling program. Houston has a five -year contract with $ 3.5 million with Soundthinking, the Stotspotter mother company, which is due to expire in 2027.