Re: domestic audio surveillance in LA, Redwood City

[Steve Schear <schear@lvcm.com>]

At 12:25 PM 1/4/00 -0800, Blank Frank wrote:
>
>Audio sensors installed
>
>        Last month, the sheriff's department
>        installed several audio sensors on
>        rooftops and utility poles in a
>        1-square-mile area of the
>        Willowbrook neighborhood in the
>        south-central area of the county, near
>        Long Beach.
>
>        The sensors are part of the ShotSpotter system, which was
>        invented by the Northern California-based Trilon Technology
>        company. The sensors are designed to detect loud noises
>        such as gunshots, firecrackers and car backfires. A computer
>        analyzes data from the sensors and uses a method known as
>        triangulation to immediately pinpoint the location of a noise
>        within 30 feet. Police dispatchers can then see the locations of
>
>        loud noises on their computer screens.
>
>        So far, the ShotSpotter has only been adopted by Redwood
>        City, just south of San Francisco. The Los Angeles County
>        Sheriff's Department is testing the device for 30 days and may
>        choose to buy it later for $185,000, said spokesman Deputy
>        Bob Killeen.
>
>Story:
>http://www.apbnews.com/cjprofessionals/behindthebadge/2000/01/04/shotspotter
>0104_01.html
>

In the 1994 pilot development of a prototype for such a system was proposed
by members of the Wireless Communication Alliance a member of the then
Joint Venture Silicon Valley government-industry alliance, for the City of
East Palo Alto.  Don't know if anything every became of this activity.

--Steve