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"The Secret Service is shopping for camouflaged sensors that can decipher gunshot details amid city hubbub, contracting documents suggest.\nThe agency, responsible for guarding inaugurations and other U.S. special events, would exercise sole control over the surveillance system, rather than let private analysts send assessments, as many cities are starting to do.\n\"Due to the secure nature of these sites, a high gunshot detection rate (more than 95%) is strongly desired while daily, operational monitoring of the system by external parties is undesirable,\u201D stated a Jan. 18 survey form for contractors who have products ready to sell.\nAs prices drop, and geospatial tracking and sound monitoring sharpen, police are embracing gunfire identification technologies. Cities nationwide, including\u00A0Chicago, Kansas City, Mo., and Palo Alto, Calif., have leased gun detection services online, through the cloud, from security vendor ShotSpotter.\nIt is unclear whether the Secret Service's system would be stationed in specific locales or moved for each event.  \nAgency officials said they want \"technologies for fixed site surveillance applications,\" covering from \"10s to 100s of acres per site, located within urban areas.\" But the questionnaire also inquires, \"Is the system portable (i.e., can it be quickly relocated to another site)?\"\nSpecial event safety increasingly relies on a variety of high-tech monitors, such as city traffic cameras for presidential debates and facial recognition tools for the Super Bowl. Secret Service officials are asking retailers whether their gunfire sensors can be \"integrated to communicate with other detection systems.\"\nA deep data dive on each incident apparently appeals to the agency. Officials want to know whether gunfire reports are able to detail, for instance, the caliber of the weapon, route the bullet took, elevation of the shot and projectile velocity of the ammunition.\nOne challenge with shot detection is that the location of the shooter \u2013 be it hidden inside a car or in a wind tunnel \u2014 can mask blasts. Potential vendors are asked to disclose factors that might impair a system\u2019s perception. And they must address the technology\u2019s ability to parse certain tricky situations such as, multiple shots occurring in a short time interval, from the same or different locations.\nThe Secret Service is pursuing technologies that are \"easily concealed\" or could \"aesthetically match their surroundings,\" according to the survey sheet.\nShot detectors have sparked privacy concerns because they can pick up ambient noise, like a loud street argument that accompanied a fatal shooting in New Bedford, Mass., according to The New York Times.\nShotSpotter officials told The Times that concerns about privacy are generally unfounded since the detectors \"don\u2019t turn on unless they hear a gunshot.\" \nAuthorities can obtain critical tips about what to expect upon arriving at a crime scene and potential evidence \u2014 such as how fast and in what direction a shooter in a car was traveling, the report added.\nOfficial White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/01/22/secret-service-bionic-ears/>