We Tracked the Secret Police Microphones Hidden Everywhere
ShotSpotter microphones are controversial surveillance devices designed to alert authorities to gunshots. But their exact locations have been kept secret from both the public and the police—until now. WIRED obtained leaked documents detailing the locations of over 25,500 of these devices, and what we learned abut how and where they’ve been deployed may surprise you. Have data or information you'd like to share with WIRED? You can reach out securely via email at dhruvmehrotra@wired.com or on Signal at dmehro.89 Director: Lisandro Perez-Rey Director of Photography: Constantine Economides Editor: Matthew Colby Host: Dhruv Mehrotra Line Producer: Joseph Buscemi Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas; Brandon White Production Manager: Peter Brunette Camera Operator: Chris Eustache Sound Mixer: Sean Paulsen Production Assistant: Ryan Coppola Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Ian Bryant Supervising Editor: Doug Larsen Assistant Editor: Fynn Lithgow These controversial surveillance devices are designed to alert authorities to gunshots, and their exact locations have been kept hidden from police and the public until now. WIRED obtained leaked documents that reveal for the first time the secret locations of 25,580 ShotSpotter microphones. In this video, we'll analyze that data and test the claim of activists that these sensors lead to biased over-policing of communities of color across America. 12 million Americans live in a neighborhood with at least one ShotSpotter microphone. Are you one of them? Let's put ShotSpotter secret locations on the grid. [mellow music] [graphics whirring] [mellow music] This is just one of the 25,580 data points that represent ShotSpotter microphone locations as indicated in the leaked documents provided to me earlier this year by a source under the condition of anonymity. To confirm that the leaked data was legit, WIRED vetted the locations by physically visiting sensors in different cities, including Pasadena, California, Chicago, Illinois. [Reporter] I think that's it on top of the pole. [Dhruv] Miami, Florida. [Reporter] There it is. I see it. And this one attached to a street lamp near Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York, where we spotted the protective casing that houses the acoustic sensors and processors. We even used Google Street View to virtually visit a random sample of locations in the document, and they check out. The sensors were exactly where the leaked data said that they would be. We don't know if our data set includes all sensors that exist, but Tom Chittum from SoundThinking, the company that makes them, said that as of February 2023, the document was likely authentic. The data set represents over a thousand elementary and high schools, dozens of billboards, scores of hospitals, and more than a hundred public housing complexes where the sensors are placed. In total, the leaked document indicates ShotSpotter locations in 84 metropolitan areas across 34 states, plus US territories such as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Nine US cities actually have more than 500 sensors installed, including Albuquerque, New Mexico, Chicago, Illinois, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Washington, D.C., where sensors can be found on US government buildings, including the headquarters of the FBI, the Department of Justice, the US Court of Appeals, and just outside the city throughout the campus of the University of Maryland..
