The Greensboro Police Department needs some assistance from the City Council.
However, according to comments made by Police Chief Brian James, one thing they aren’t asking for is a “shots fired system.”
City Councilmember Sharon Hightower and Mayor Nancy Vaughan appear to be pushing this technology, which is a computerized system that will inform the police of the exact location of shots fired in a certain area.
At the Dec. 7, 2020 work session on violent crime, Vaughan brought up the fact that Durham had just instigated a shots fired system and Hightower brought up shots fired again at the March 23 work session on the Greensboro Police Department Strategic Plan.
At both the City Council work session on Dec. 7, 2020 and the work session on March 23, James explained that this would not be the best use of city funds because the coverage area for each system is so small that to cover enough territory to make it worthwhile would be expensive.
James said, “It’s a good program but it’s very expensive. It’s right around $100,000 for shots fired, but it only covers about a quarter-mile radius.”
James said that for the same cost he could put a police officer in the area to sit in his car and listen for shots.
James said, “A license plate reader is a much cheaper option.” He explained that people firing shots are typically mobile and license plate readers at key access points in the community would serve much the same purpose and be far less expensive.
Hightower said that her concern about a license plate reader is that “the minority population would be targeted. Blacks tend to be stopped more than others. What happens when they are stopped?”
Hightower said, “Put shots fired in all five districts and there could be more shots fired across town than there are here.”
I’m getting the feeling the city council is useless
Sharon Hightower’s response is just what one would expect.
Same ole sad hightower song it’s either black or not. Why invest in any of this if when there is trouble officers are told to stand down because the chief didn’t want to put his officers in harms way I thought that was what they are trained for. What if a building was burning we expect firefighters to go in and put out the fire not stand down and wait until it goes out by itself unlike what happened last year in downtown when police were not sent in to stop what happened downtown. So so sad. What a city and country we live in.
License plate readers don’t “target” anyone. They only collect data and compare to known activity. Let’s see…. pay $100,000 for each 1/4 mile hot spot you already know the shots come from plus ongoing licensing & maintenance fees. I believe the old folks around these parts call that a pig in a poke. I think the more telling question for Hightower should be: In a city that is made up of 58+% minorities according to DataUSA, how is it a problem that more minority folks are stopped?
Oh the bigoted logic of Ms. Hightower!
One wonder’s what kind of drugs S Hightower is on. Somebody needs to inform her that license plate readers identify plates, not skin color.
Instead of proposing high tech weapons for at least some in the dept. why not work on increasing the pay scale for recruiting new police. It is amazing how the councils will propose a lifetime medical coverage for themselves ‘“ I’m sure it won’t take 5 hrs to approve” but not for the men & woman protecting us.
The most obvious solution: Chief James is most certainly better informed than all the council members put together. Please listen to him!
Does Councilperson Hightower have any sense of reality? Every point she makes is about minorities either not being used for contracts or that they are unfairly targeted because of their race. The statistics are clear. Black on black crime accounts for 85% of the attacks and murders in the black community. Yet when it comes to working with the police to identify these criminals, no one ever sees anything. How does “shots fired” reduce these problems. I agree with the Chief, put the money in salaries for the police officers and hire enough to do the job. A policeman on the beat is a much stronger deterrent than a computer.
Does it ever dawn on anyone that we need to arrest persons who commit crimes without regard to race. A criminal is a criminal and a crime is a crime soo lets “cure the violence” and help US all. Why are certain persons trying to avoid arresting criminal with regard to race? Can’t we get away from looking at criminals by only looking at their race and just see criminals as criminals. If its a criminal lets take the criminal off the street and STOP the unacceptable behavior.
Waste of city money, again. Depending on the system it will provide a general area. Time police arrive suspect(s) will most likely have fled the scene. License plate reader is much better use of money. Even better hire more police!!
Sharon Hightower ,,,, past time for her to go. District 1, vote on what she has done for you. Surely there is someone more competent and intelligent that’s want to sit on the city council and help their district. PLEASE…
I have a solution for Ms. Hightower. Just don’t police her district. Let’s see how that goes. And by the way, once the shot is fired it is usually too late.
I will bet there are more ” shots fired ” in the southeast side of Greensboro than the northwest side.
You would have thought that the Greensboro City Council would stop following Durham, NC after the Cure Violence flop. Greensboro spent oven1 million dollars on the Cure Violence program and after a record year of murders and violence you don’t see or hear anything about the programs success or failures. You could have paid the salary of several officers instead of having a few benefit from the Cure Violence failed program. Why don’t you wise up and listen to Chief Brian James?
Cure violence is working wonderfully for Yvonne Johnson. We just need to give her another $900k taxpayer money, and if that isn’t enough, I’m sure our city council can find more.
This technology was featured on the local news (I think Fox at 8) and poof it’s brought up in a council meeting. It rings a little bit of Fox News saying something on their morning show and then that one guy, can’t remember his name, rage tweeting about it all week thereafter.
It’s a good reminder that the things that are given more attention by the media – local, national, or bigoted – get more attention from real people that make decisions.
I’d challenge Chief James to explain to me the finances of years of salary for multiple patrol officers to do the job of the technology. Presumably it can operate 24/7/365 and that would require at least 3-4 officers to cover just the time. Presumably it’s mostly a one time fee to set up and then maybe another 10-20k a year to operate. Technology is always cheaper than humans (well ever since those damn fun police outlawed enslaving people, well except in prisons, nevermind I guess). But seriously, 5-10 years, that technology or something similar will be on every city block.
Is the “technology” going to respond to the scene, document the evidence, and make an arrest?
The body cameras are not cheap-they upload to a server every time they are turned on. The server space is an issue that costs a lot of money every year. The continued reluctance of Council to listen to the person they pay to be chief affects morale. You have a lot of police waiting for a radio call. They respond, take a report, and then go about their day. No one wants to be proactive for fear of the Hightower’s of the city who make everything about race.
The police you just described are bad police officers and should be fired IMO.
Right. Who are you going to replace them with? Thus all the vacancies. No one wants the job anymore.
Maybe try something different and stop doing things the “way we’ve always done it”. Reimagine law enforcement. As you, and many others here, point out regularly – crime is up, no one wants the job, and police just aren’t successful at their role. Most other industries you figure out a new way to do it.
We don’t have thinkers we have lazy people that just want to make their money.
fools
No comment necessary.
The council reads these blurbs. No wonder they don’t want open meetings.
The village idiot strikes again!