KC wants to keep funding gunfire detection system. But has it reduced crime?

The Kansas City Police Department continues to request funding for a gunshot detection technology that research shows has not reduced shootings or improved case clearance rates.

While the technology has not improved clearance rates or reduced shootings, research has shown that it has improved response times and evidence recovery.

The research conducted on Kansas City’s use of the technology by Eric Piza, a criminologist at Northeastern University, found that with ShotSpotter, Police Department officers are more likely to recover ballistic evidence, such as shell casings, and in some cases even firearms, in areas with the technology than in those without.

From 2020 until the publication of the study in July 2024, Piza and a team of researchers analyzed 15 years of ShotSpotter data combined from Kansas City and Chicago, as part of federal grant funding from the National Institute for Justice.

There were 107 homicides in Kansas City in 2012, and while that number dipped to as low as 82 homicides in 2014, the number of homicides continued to rise until a peak in 2023 at 182 homicides.

Missouri had the 10th highest rate of gun deaths in the nation in 2023, according to data from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.

According to homicide statistics from the Police Department, 170 firearms were used as a “means of attack” in 2023 homicides, but that data does cite that one or more firearms may have been used in a single homicide.

The technology uses sound to detect gunfire and alerts police departments to the area of that sound.

Officials had announced a roughly 3.5-square-mile area of Kansas City covered by ShotSpotter technology in 2012, with the first five years funded by a grant.

At the time, the installation was touted to improve gunshot detection, response time and support proactive policing strategies. A press release from when the technology was installed regarding the announcement touted the technology as an effort to rid the city of gun violence.

“The second kind of overarching finding is that none of that translated to any meaningful public safety benefits,” Piza told The Star in an interview. “So shootings did not reduce in ShotSpotter areas, either fatal or nonfatal shootings, compared to areas in Kansas City that did not have ShotSpotter, and also shootings and clearance rates of shootings did not substantially change in ShotSpotter areas compared to other areas.”

Piza’s findings from Kansas City mirrored results on the technology’s use in Chicago, saying that what a city uses the technology for depends on what the goals of the individual departments are.

“But I think the evidence at this point is clear that, if cities are buying ShotSpotter with the explicit goal of reducing shootings, or maybe even solving shootings, the research just, frankly, doesn’t support that use,” Piza said.

Piza’s research showed that ShotSpotter alerts shaved off roughly 90 seconds from Kansas City police response time, but did not minimize gun violence or improve solve rates for cases occurring in the area where it is installed.

The technology, like many in the policing sphere, is more reactive than proactive, Piza said.

“And we have, you know, several decades of research at this point that show that reactive policing strategies are not nearly as effective as proactive policing strategy,” Piza said.

Kansas City has spent more than $1 million on the gunshot detection technology since 2019. The Police Department is requesting another $230,785 for maintenance in its next budget.

“It seems to be the big question of, you know, where does the city go from here with the investment?” Piza said. “And again, it doesn’t look like they expanded, but it is interesting that they’re continuing to fund it.”

A crime reduction strategy

Capt. Jacob Becchina, a police spokesperson, said that ShotSpotter isn’t something that reduces crime by itself, but instead serves as a tool for investigators.

“It remains part of (a) crime reduction strategy that we still do feel has some amount of value,” Becchina said.

While the square mile coverage has not changed since its implementation in 2012, the roughly one percent of the city’s footprint that it does cover has seen successes, he said.

“Based on gunshot triangulation over the years, officers have been successful at returning to the locations of gunfire alerts and recovering additional evidence because of the specific location that they were alerted to,” Becchina said.

But whether the technology’s use could ever be expanded is something that hasn’t been decided and if it were, it wouldn’t be by much because of the costs involved, he said.

The usage has also led to improved community engagement surrounding the dangers of celebratory gunfire, an issue that has plagued Kansas City for years, Becchina said.

An analysis by the Police Department from 2015 found that about 70% of ShotSpotter alerts in the coverage area were not accompanied by a 911 call, meaning officers were often responding to gunfire incidents that residents did not report, Becchina said.

“Only three out of 10 times did somebody actually call to report that gunfire,” he said.

Becchina said that the response leads to the community seeing a more engaged Police Department and working with them on the ongoing issues of gunfire.

“And there’s no way to put a statistic on any of that, but it’s worth telling,” he said. “It’s part of the story about ShotSpotter and how it functions, and how it can be a benefit to a police department and a community.”

According to a statement from SoundThinking, the company that supplies technology to KCPD, this technology ensures that when gunfire occurs, law enforcement can respond more quickly and effectively.

“No single technology can solve the complex challenge of gun violence,” the statement reads. “But across the Midwest, ShotSpotter is proving its value as a critical tool that helps police respond faster, recover evidence that solves cases, and demonstrate to communities that every incident of gunfire deserves a response.”

Future of the program

Gun violence has been prevalent in the city for years. In 2025, the city had 138 homicides, with 132 of those being committed with a firearm.

Local officials said the city saw a downward trend in both homicides and nonfatal shootings in a press conference before the new year. Mayor Quinton Lucas said that nonfatal shootings had dropped by roughly 30 percent in 2025 when compared to 2024.

Lucas said there had been discussions in the Board of Police Commissioners meetings over whether the city was receiving its end of the bargain while they continued to fund the technology.

Lucas cited the same data as Becchina, saying that not a lot of people call emergency services when they hear the sound of gunfire. He also said that it can help with the safety of officers, knowing what they are driving to and whether there is still gunfire being detected.

“Is this the best and are there new technologies that would allow us to address this issue?” Lucas said. “I think that’s the question that we very much need to explore.”

Noting that a federal grant funded the initial deployment of ShotSpotter, Lucas said, too often there are technologies that end up being funded by local taxpayers in perpetuity.

“Long after that, the taxpayers of Kansas City, through their general fund, are funding forever, something that never really had the same assessment as to a pure cost-benefit analysis,” Lucas said.

“Would we still know about the shooting activity? Would we still have the responsiveness necessary? I think that is something that we need to have in a future discussion,” he said.

“And while it’s a high part of a budget request, it’s still not the biggest part, and that’s probably how it keeps sneaking through year over year,” Lucas said.

This story was originally published January 12, 2026 at 5:30 AM.

Ben Wheeler

The Kansas City Star