Shotspotter curbs gun violence

Crime fighting efforts and strict policing have paid off for the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality.

Gun shots fired in Helenvale have decreased from 120 in December to 52 in January.

The city also recorded 59 road accidents in January, a decline from 88 accidents recorded in January last year.

This is according to a report presented to the safety and security portfolio committee yesterday.

Safety and security portfolio head John Best said the drop in incidents could be attributed to the Shotspotter pilot project and more traffic cameras installed along Bay roads.

“We have found that since we installed Shotspotter there has been a major decline in shots fired, so much so that there have been 22 days where no shots were fired.”

Best said since the installation, the metro police and South African Police Service (SAPS) could respond quickly and arrest the perpetrators on the spot.

“SAPS have arrested 17 people and we have arrested six,” he said,

“[About] 99% of all the shots that are fired are not reported to the authorities.

“We never knew that these shots had been fired and when we installed Shotspotter, we then realised what the problem was.

“So, the police could then concentrate on the specific areas,” Best said.

The R3-million pilot project was launched on October 17 and sees the operations command centre in Mount Road and the metro police work together as soon shots are fired .

A verification process is initiated and when the signal comes back, it goes to the metro police control room and operations command centre simultaneously and they respond jointly.

Best said the metro was also aware of a specific area where there was a lot of gang activity.

He did not want to disclose the name of the area.

“The main aim is to make our roads safe and this report shows that we had two fatalities in December and this is because the licence and traffic department has put additional cameras in hotspots where people are speeding,” Best said.

“That is what we want. We don’t want a single life lost.”

Police spokeswoman Colonel Priscilla Naidu said the installation of Shotspotter in the area had yielded positive results.

“While we cannot say it has decreased the rate of crime in the area, Shotspotter has been positive in that we respond to a crime scene quickly as we can pinpoint exactly where the shot goes off,” Naidu said.

DA councillor Gustav Rautenbach commended the department for the achievements.