The decision of the National Security Minister to introduce the ShotSpotter technology from the US to determine from where shots are being fired is a laudable attempt to address gun violence in Trinidad. It requires that acoustic sensors be placed in specific areas and in specific configurations on high buildings and tall utility poles.
These sensors will pick up the sound waves from gunshots and relay them to appropriate computers which can then determine the exact location of the gunshots. The police can be quickly dispatched to the specific locations.
This technology is impressive, very expensive, and requires that command posts be placed in the area with an adequate number of police officers. It must be noted that they are being used in highly urbanised areas with tall buildings, on which the sensors can be installed.
It is yet to be determined, however, if their use will be successful in Trinidad. Our houses are generally too low for the successful installation of the sensors. Our utility poles are equally low. Unless these acoustic sensors are invisible to the naked eye, they can be easily destroyed. Moreover, while they can locate where gunshots were fired, the ShotSpotter cannot identify the shooter, who usually disappears quickly.
If they are installed it is to be hoped that they will not be seen as a substitute for highly developed policing strategies. They will certainly not reduce the violence in Trinidad. Its roots are embedded in our culture, in impoverished areas, in some dysfunctional parental and educational strategies, and are reinforced by the bizarre behaviour of some politicians and business-men.
Reducing crime and violence require a carefully-planned, comprehensive strategy aimed at parental training, effective educational strategies, the reduction of poverty, rehabilitation of derelict communities, control of the drug trade and the smuggling and local manufacture of guns.
Kenneth Assee
Port-of-Spain