technology now in use by the new york police department may be picking up stray conversations three hundred shotspotter microphones are being placed in high crime areas of the bronx and brooklyn, with the aim of alerting police immediately when they overhear the sound of gunshots however, the devices pick up more that just the bang of shots being fired in potential crimes, and evidence from conversations they've listened in on has been used in court scroll down for video  new york city's pilot program using shotspotter's microphone technology began last week in the bronx above, mayor bill de blasio speaks about the system  the shotspotter system works by sending a few seconds of audio to police departments along with location information after a potential gunshot system makes it through a filtering process  audio recordings from shotspotter have been used to corroborate testimony that led to convictions in a 2011 massachusetts murder where a voice was heard shouting 'no jason, no jason!' before shots were fired nypd officials and new york mayor bill de blasio announced a pilot program for the microphones earlier this week sensors in seven districts of the bronx have already begun working, and the devices will be turned on in ten districts of brooklyn on monday, according to the new york times 'this gunshot detection system is going to do a world of good in terms of going after the bad guys,' de blasio said the devices are thought to help police respond more quickly and help authorities pin point the exact location of shootings after potential gunshot recordings are sent through the company's headquarters in california shotspotter says that its devices 'are specifically designed to be triggered by loud explosive or 'impuslive' sounds only' three microphones must be triggered to start an alert and triangulate a location the company says that human voices, slamming car doors and loud music will not trigger the microphones, which then send summary data about a sound to the company the shotspotter system (above) filters out noises such as car door slams and yelling before sending alerts to the police  recordings of a human voice captured by the shotspotter system were used to get a conviction in a massachusetts murder case  it states that there is no 'live streaming' of any microphones apart from the few seconds of regular audio sent to its employees for further analysis about whether the sound may have been a firecracker or a gunshot an alert, location data and a few seconds of audio are then sent to local police the restrictions on triggering events have not stopped some privacy advocates from saying that evidence procured by the shotspotters may violate the fourth amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures 'if [shotspotter] is recording voices out in public, it needs to be shut down,' the aclu's jay stanley told take part he said his organization is 'always concerned about secondary uses of technology that is sold to us for some unobjectionable purpose and is then used for other purposes' de blasio has adopted a two year pilot program for $15million after shotspotter was used in other us cities such as washington and san francisco  concerns have also been raised about the intrusiveness of audio recording being combined with surveillance video, according to the south coast today shotspotter's website said that '3 out of approximately 3 million incidents' have been latched onto by 'privacy zealots' and that the voices in those cases were yelling loudly in a public street during a shooting rather than having a private conversation the company's technology is already being used in major cities such as washington, boston, oakland, san francisco and minneapolis its use has revealed that the vast majority of verified gunshots it picks up are never reported to police however, it has also been accused of wasting police resources seventy five per cent of the alerts issued in newark, new jersey, were false alarm, according to wnyc the two year new york pilot program for shotspotter will cost $15million sensors are often placed on buildings and poles
massachusetts company new york city 15million
shotspotter microphones detect gunshots and triangulate location . technology uses filtering process to eliminate car door slams and yelling . snippet of a sound was used to get massachusetts murder conviction . company says no private conversations are being monitored by its system . new york city is beginning pilot program for $15million 