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Wonder if it pays to have every police gun have a GPS/microcontroller which uploads over cellular the GPS corrdinates and timestamp whenever the gun is discharg

Wonder if it pays to have every police gun have a GPS/microcontroller which uploads over cellular the GPS corrdinates and timestamp whenever the gun is discharged. If every gun has a unique id and is registered to a police member. We'd have very accurate data. Heck combine this with the video system. Might not stop the shootings, but it'd give us useful data to help prevent them going forwards.

darkmighty 11y ago
There was a system that apparently determines gunfire origin from triangulation reliably in cities too. Both combined sounds like power data (no pun intended).
- jonlucc 11y ago
  I believe that system is called ShotSpotter. There are a couple drawbacks (coverage isn't perfect), and I've heard someone claim that it is nearing nanny-state levels of surveillance. I don't think the microphones are clear enough to get much more than a blur of noise, but I'm not sure.
- jobu 11y ago
  A few years back I was in the Phoenix area for New Years eve, and the local police were using ShotSpotter. There's a tradition in parts of the city to fire shots into the air in celebration, but those bullets come back down and have killed a few people.
- task_queue 11y ago
  Yep, they used these systems in Iraq and now they're setup in some of the more dangerous areas near me.
at-fates-hands 11y ago
>> Wonder if it pays to have every police gun have a GPS/microcontroller which uploads over cellular the GPS corrdinates and timestamp whenever the gun is discharged There are already a myriad of procedures in place for dealing with weapons being discharged. You do realize its standard procedure in most states that if an officer discharges his weapon in any scenario other than department training or range practice its investigated by the department? This includes accidental discharges, warning shots, and shooting at animals and other scenarios. Also, the last time I checked with a buddy who's a cop, they have to check out and check in their firearms and ammunition. Any discrepancy between check out and check in, and a report has to be filed.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- cmdrfred 11y ago
  Beacuse .38 rounds are impossible to get anywhere but from the police department.
  - at-fates-hands 11y ago
    Most departments I know use the Glock 22 or 23 which is a .40 caliber round.
ihsw 11y ago
Easier said than done. Such a system would take at least a decade to be rolled out to every LEO in major cities, much less the whole country. On top of that there is the issue of costs, of which there are many. Ranging from procurement and training to insurance and maintenance, no city councilor will want to take this one. And I haven't even touched on the political implications, namely that no politician wants to appear to be scrutinizing police officers too much. The number one question on many officer's minds is the general populace aren't subject to the same restrictions. There's also the issue of where the data (and related systems) is maintained and stored, with many preferring data remain under state control rather than federal.
- hga 11y ago
  We gun owners would also fight it very hard, since we'd see it as a prelude to rolling this out for us. Especially in the face of that, it would severely narrow the gun designs police would be able to carry, and since not everyone is alike, e.g. I hate the grip angle of the Glock, that wouldn't be good. Pure GPS + time reporting strikes me as useless, unless people think police are killing people "off the books" a lot more than I think they are. Adding video isn't likely to tell you much, since the predicates to drawing your gun are crucial and frequently wouldn't be visible from the gun. I also shudder from an engineering viewpoint at trying to get all this to work. Service handgun are big enough as they are, and they add serious shocks, solvents, and primer and smokeless debris to the bundle of environmental stresses we demand of things like cameras on cops and their cars.
  - superuser2 11y ago
    >We gun owners would also fight it very hard, since we'd see it as a prelude to rolling this out for us. Arguments for the legitimacy of gun ownership tend to focus on deterrence and self-defense. This makes no difference at all in the deterrence scenario, and legitimate self-defense has no reason to be secret or anonymous. When the gun community argues for a Constitutional right to commit murder and get away with it, then maybe we can finally stop taking it seriously.
    - 11y ago

darkmighty 11y ago

There was a system that apparently determines gunfire origin from triangulation reliably in cities too. Both combined sounds like power data (no pun intended).

jonlucc 11y ago
I believe that system is called ShotSpotter. There are a couple drawbacks (coverage isn't perfect), and I've heard someone claim that it is nearing nanny-state levels of surveillance. I don't think the microphones are clear enough to get much more than a blur of noise, but I'm not sure.
jobu 11y ago
A few years back I was in the Phoenix area for New Years eve, and the local police were using ShotSpotter. There's a tradition in parts of the city to fire shots into the air in celebration, but those bullets come back down and have killed a few people.
task_queue 11y ago
Yep, they used these systems in Iraq and now they're setup in some of the more dangerous areas near me.

at-fates-hands 11y ago

>> Wonder if it pays to have every police gun have a GPS/microcontroller which uploads over cellular the GPS corrdinates and timestamp whenever the gun is discharged There are already a myriad of procedures in place for dealing with weapons being discharged. You do realize its standard procedure in most states that if an officer discharges his weapon in any scenario other than department training or range practice its investigated by the department? This includes accidental discharges, warning shots, and shooting at animals and other scenarios. Also, the last time I checked with a buddy who's a cop, they have to check out and check in their firearms and ammunition. Any discrepancy between check out and check in, and a report has to be filed.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
cmdrfred 11y ago
Beacuse .38 rounds are impossible to get anywhere but from the police department.
- at-fates-hands 11y ago
  Most departments I know use the Glock 22 or 23 which is a .40 caliber round.

ihsw 11y ago

Easier said than done. Such a system would take at least a decade to be rolled out to every LEO in major cities, much less the whole country. On top of that there is the issue of costs, of which there are many. Ranging from procurement and training to insurance and maintenance, no city councilor will want to take this one. And I haven't even touched on the political implications, namely that no politician wants to appear to be scrutinizing police officers too much. The number one question on many officer's minds is the general populace aren't subject to the same restrictions. There's also the issue of where the data (and related systems) is maintained and stored, with many preferring data remain under state control rather than federal.

hga 11y ago
We gun owners would also fight it very hard, since we'd see it as a prelude to rolling this out for us. Especially in the face of that, it would severely narrow the gun designs police would be able to carry, and since not everyone is alike, e.g. I hate the grip angle of the Glock, that wouldn't be good. Pure GPS + time reporting strikes me as useless, unless people think police are killing people "off the books" a lot more than I think they are. Adding video isn't likely to tell you much, since the predicates to drawing your gun are crucial and frequently wouldn't be visible from the gun. I also shudder from an engineering viewpoint at trying to get all this to work. Service handgun are big enough as they are, and they add serious shocks, solvents, and primer and smokeless debris to the bundle of environmental stresses we demand of things like cameras on cops and their cars.
- superuser2 11y ago
  >We gun owners would also fight it very hard, since we'd see it as a prelude to rolling this out for us. Arguments for the legitimacy of gun ownership tend to focus on deterrence and self-defense. This makes no difference at all in the deterrence scenario, and legitimate self-defense has no reason to be secret or anonymous. When the gun community argues for a Constitutional right to commit murder and get away with it, then maybe we can finally stop taking it seriously.
  - 11y ago