What would you say about a crime-fighting tool that can detect the exact location and time of an explosion -- whether it be a firearm or fireworks.
the question will surface at a community meeting in waipahu tonight as lawmakers consider bringing the technology to hawaii.
"Law enforcement and fire departments to detect immediately the sounds of gunfire and explosions like fireworks in real time and be able to locate those for the purposes of response," said Ed Jopeck of ShotSpotter.
ShotSpotter bills itself as the world leader in gunshot and explosion detection technology. The system can determine the type, location and scale of explosions by combining acoustic sensors and geo-locaters that are deployed within the city.
"Typically on top of buildings -- high locations where they can hear for greater distance," said Jopeck.
"I'm real interested in finding out what this technology can do," said City Councilman Nestor Garcia.
City Councilman Nestor Garcia, who represents Village Park and Royal Kunia, says something needs to be done to combat crime and illegal fireworks.
"We are going to continue to live with this problem with aerial fireworks and with consumer fireworks. In order to deal with the problem you have to find out where the problem is," said Garcia.
The ShotSpotter is used in nearly 70 cities including Oakland, Minneapolis and Washington D.C. Officials from the Honolulu Police and Fire Departments have met with the vendor.
"That signal to be sent to a patrol vehicle so a patrol vehicle can be literally a block away from a fireworks display that is unauthorized," Jopeck said.
Officers can time their response and witness illegal acts.
"The system has very sophisticated processing algo-rhythms in the soft-ware of the server that not only locates but also insures that the gunfire sound is resulting from gunfire or the fireworks is resulting in from fireworks," Jopeck said.
"If we can deploy this technology in a pilot project and if it can work for a certain area of the community like here in Waipahu and maybe then this is something worth pursuing," Garcia said.
No word on what the system would cost. It can be installed in 60 to 90 days.
"With the APEC Summit coming in November of next year they are going to be asking whether the city of Honolulu will be deploying this technology," Garcia said.
