Durham's ShotSpotter gunfire detection system failed to alert police during multiple shooting incidents within its monitored area, including a New Year's Day drive-by shooting that injured five people and two subsequent fatal shootings.
Durham, North Carolina began a one-year pilot of ShotSpotter gunfire detection technology on December 15, 2022, covering three square miles where roughly one-third of the city's gunshot wounds occur. The system uses sensors placed on buildings to detect gunshots and alert police within 60 seconds, with ShotSpotter committing to detect 90% of gunfire above .25 caliber. However, the system failed to detect multiple significant shooting incidents within its coverage area. On January 1, 2023, a drive-by shooting outside a Subway restaurant on North Miami Boulevard injured five people, including one child, with victims ranging in age from 17 to 24. The system also failed to detect two fatal shootings in February - one on February 5 at Fay and Juniper Streets and another on Park Avenue. All incidents occurred within the monitored area but ShotSpotter provided no alerts to Durham Police Department. The company's contract excludes the 48 hours surrounding New Year's Eve due to fireworks, and specifies that shootings must occur 'fully outdoors in free space' without silencers to be detectable. Mayor Pro Tem Mark-Anthony Middleton explained that drive-by shootings from vehicles may not trigger the acoustic sensors. Despite these failures, ShotSpotter reported sending 197 alerts in January 2023, detecting 998 rounds fired. The city paid $197,500 for the first year plus $28,000 for 911 integration.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
AI systems that fail to perform reliably or effectively under varying conditions, exposing them to errors and failures that can have significant consequences, especially in critical applications or areas that require moral reasoning.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Unintentional
Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed