Liz González's neighborhood in East San Jose can be loud. Some of her neighbors apparently want the whole block to hear their cars, others like to light fireworks for every occasion, and occasionally there are gunshots. In February 2023, San Jose began piloting AI-powered gunshot detection technology from the company Flock Safety in several sections of the city, including Gonzalez's neighborhood. During the first four months of the pilot, Flock's gunshot detection system alerted police to 123 shooting incidents. But new data released by San Jose's Digital Privacy Office shows that only 50 percent of those alerts were actually confirmed to be gunfire, while 34 percent of them were confirmed false positives, meaning the Flock Safety system incorrectly identified other sounds--such as fireworks, construction, or cars backfiring--as shooting incidents. After Flock recalibrated its sensors in July 2023, 81 percent of alerts were confirmed gunshots, 7 percent were false alarms, and 12 percent could not be determined one way or the other.

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. The Department of Homeland Security said its Science and Technology Directorate has developed a portable gunshot detection system in collaboration with the Massachusetts-based Shooter Detection Systems company. The department said that the system, known as SDS Outdoor, could provide "critical information about outdoor shooting incidents almost instantaneously to first responders." The new system is reportedly an enhancement to the commercial, off-the-shelf Guardian Indoor Active Shooter Detection System.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says its Science and Technology Directorate division has created a portable gunshot detection system with the help of a company called Shooter Detection Systems (SDS). The agency notes that whereas other systems only detect audio, SDS Outdoor can pinpoint flashes of gunshots as well. DHS claims this approach can reduce false positive rates. DHS has not disclosed details about the accuracy of the system. SDS, which is owned by Alarm.com, says its indoor gunshot detection system has a near-100 percent detection rate with fewer than one false alert per 5 million hours of use.

Editor's Note: It has come to our attention that several statements in this article have been based on sources that have later been recanted and are factually incorrect. Court documents from the case show that ShotSpotter accurately showed the location of the gunfire as reported in both the real-time alert, as well as in the forensic report. The initial alert was classified as a possible firework, but through their standard procedure of human analysis, it was determined within one minute to be gunfire. The evidence that ShotSpotter provided was later withdrawn by the prosecution and had no bearing on the results of the case. Sixty-five-year-old Michael Williams was released from jail last month after spending almost a year in jail on a murder charge.

Sixty-five-year-old Michael Williams was released from jail last month after spending almost a year in jail on a murder charge. The "gunshot" sound that pointed the finger at Williams was initially classified as a firework by the AI. After the charges were dropped due to "insufficient evidence" it was revealed that one of ShotSpotter's human "reviewers" had changed the data to fit the crime, reclassifying the sound as a gunshot instead of a firework [1]. The case highlighted the dangers that the system poses to civil liberties and brings to question how much power we should give to AI "witnesses", especially those that can easily be tampered with. Shotspotter is a patented acoustic gunshot detection system of microphones, algorithms, and human reviewers that alerts police to potential gunfire [2].

It is certainly startling when you hear a loud bang that sounds like a gunshot. Imagine sitting in your living room and from outside comes that blaring sound. It seemed like gunfire, but you aren't quite sure. There was a very loud noise, it was a sharp popping sound reminiscent of a gunshot, and it was close enough to be heard. Luckily, the sound wasn't so close that it might have been gunfire directed at or particularly nearby your home. Should you call the police to notify them about the apparent gunfire? Sometimes, people that think they might have heard a gunshot are reluctant to report that they heard the sound. One form of reluctance is due to their being unsure of what the sound really was. You don't want to officially claim that there was a gunshot if the sound turns out to be fireworks, or maybe a car that backfired making an abrupt boom.