FEATURE ShotSpotter, GE Lighting and Safer Cities
fi nding that street lighting can be much more than just illumination. GE Lighting’s ecosystem is trans- forming street lighting into the analytical brain of urban life. By repurposing street lights with LEDs containing sensors, controls, wireless transmitters, and microprocessors, a city will be able to unlock new potential benefi ts for their city teams and residents. ShotSpotter is one of these value added tech- nologies that can help boost proactive policing and enable stronger community engagement. ShotSpot- ter is already established as a proven tool in help- ing cities across the country address chronic gun violence issues.
For example, the city of San Francisco reported nearly a 50 percent decrease in recorded fi rearms violence, since deploying ShotSpotter as part of their gun violence abatement strategy. The South Bend, Ind. Police Department is using ShotSpotter as a preventative tool along with proactive community- focused policing for impressive results. Working to- gether, police and city government are fi nding new ways to improve public safety in their communities. The new GE LED streetlights will make it even easier for cities to get on board with ShotSpotter by smartly leveraging their existing infrastructure. By blending new technologies together, cities can get more for less while improving the public safety out- comes and benefi ts to the communities they serve.
Additional Smart City Benefi ts In addition to gunfi re detection, the future opportuni- ties within GE’s LED solution are bountiful. While not as critical as reducing gun violence, law enforcement will appreciate some of the other benefi ts that can help cities function more smoothly, improve traffi c fl ow, and even alert the public for weather emergencies. For example, parking downtown is typically a pain in most cities, but not in the intelligent city of the future. Networked LED street lights will have the ability to direct drivers to available spaces with the help of built-in sensors and wireless transceiv- ers. The same streetlight could serve as a sensor and give warnings in the event of severe weather or other event and help manage traffi c and offer residents a faster route home.
Smart technology is here and the opportunities
ingful outcomes in cities today. Embedding the technology in GE’s Intelligent Environments for Cities solution will take the benefi ts one step further by building into a city’s exist- ing infrastructure and by leveraging the GE Predix cloud. With ShotSpotter sensors embedded into lighting fi xtures throughout a city, much broader coverage areas will be available on a cost-affordable basis.
As law enforcement professionals know, well-lit streets are already a plus for crime prevention, but now cities are
54 LAW and ORDER I January 2016
to leverage that technology for the benefi t of urban dwellers are exciting. We see tremendous synergy be- tween GE Lighting and ShotSpotter to help cities and their police departments work smarter and more ef- fectively. Together, we can take advantage of this emerging technology to open up new benefi ts for communities across the nation.
Ralph A. Clark is the President and CEO of SST, Inc./ShotSpotter. LaO Post your comments on this story by visiting
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