Q&A
Q&A on ShotSpotter tool used by NYPD
1:34:26
·
132 sec
Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez questions Alex Foard from OTI about the ShotSpotter tool used by NYPD and OTI's role in evaluating such tools. They discuss concerns about the tool's efficacy and OTI's involvement in tech-related contracts.
- ShotSpotter is a tool used by NYPD to capture audio and identify gunshots
- Reports, including from the NYC Comptroller, indicate the tool may not be working properly
- NYPD is considering renewing their contract with SoundThinking (the vendor)
- Jennifer Gutiérrez asks about OTI's role in evaluating tools with public concerns about efficacy
- Alex Foard explains that OTI's role in Local Law 35 is primarily for transparency and inventorying, but they can provide advisory support to agencies
Jennifer Gutiérrez
1:34:26
With it.
1:34:27
And so it's it's a it's a tool that they use to capture audio to identify a gunshots.
1:34:34
And there are many reports, including that of New York City comptroller, indicating that the tool is not working properly.
1:34:39
And, nevertheless, PD is up to renew their contract, I think, next month.
1:34:44
Or this month?
1:34:45
This I think 6 months.
1:34:47
With sound thinking, who's the name of the vendor?
1:34:50
Curious if you all I guess, when when a particular tool has kind of this level of public attention about with its efficacy.
1:35:05
Penny very recently put out a statement about excuse me, they share the numbers of, like, whether or not this is actually doing its job.
1:35:17
If you all examine that tool, like, does OTI play a role in saying, like, You submitted your data for the report for local law 35.
Vickie Paladino
1:35:31
We would love for you
Jennifer Gutiérrez
1:35:31
to, like, look at your contract.
1:35:33
I guess, like, what does OTI play a role?
1:35:34
Or is it just give me the information and we'll publish it?
1:35:37
Kind of where is the communication?
1:35:38
I mean, this is a tech It's with PD, but it is a tech related contract.
1:35:42
So what role does OTI play upon, like, learning of that information and the agency's future with that particular vendor, with that tool?
Alex Foard
1:35:50
Sure.
1:35:50
That's a great question.
1:35:51
I would say from the perspective of local law 35, local law 35 is goal at the end of the day is transparency and essentially sort of inventorying of how these tools are in use in city government.
1:36:01
And so what we do with that information is make that publicly available.
1:36:05
We recently started publishing some open data, so that's even more available.
1:36:10
But it is there to sort of represent what what currently exists and what was used within that calendar year.
1:36:16
I don't have the specifics on the tool tool 2 tools that you mentioned, but we'll say that in general, we're available to support agencies in a number of different ways.
1:36:25
Again, sometimes that takes the form more of advisory work.
1:36:27
In other cases, that's a little bit more prescriptive if it comes to things like some of the cybersecurity reviews, etcetera.
1:36:34
But in general, we wanna be able to be supportive of agencies where they need our assistance.
