Verbal shots fired at Fayetteville council meeting over gunshot detection technology

Editor's note: This story was updated to add Councilwoman Brenda McNair's name to those in favor of a motion to renew the ShotSpotter contract for a year.

Verbal shots were fired at the Fayetteville City Council meeting on Monday night over the council’s consideration to renew a gunshot detection system contract, prompting the police chief to remind one councilman he has 29 years of law enforcement experience.

The City Council voted 6-4 to renew a one-year contract for ShotSpotter after the council’s discussion drew claps, gasps and scoffs from the audience at points.

Six protestors gathered outside Fayetteville City Hall before the meeting to speak out against the gunshot detection technology, owned by SoundThinking, while about a dozen held up signs during the meeting that read “STOP SHOTSPOTTER” and “Justice for Lawrence Artis.”

The Police Department said last fall that officers arrested Artis, 29, early Oct. 2 in a parking lot near the 6900 block of Cliffdale Road after the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system reported gunfire in that area.

In an October news release, police said Artis shot himself with a gun that was in his pants while he was handcuffed.

Artis later died at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, his obituary states.

Council vote

Councilman Mario Benavente made the motion to renew the ShotSpotter contract for one year at Monday night’s meeting, seconded by Councilwoman Courtney Banks-McLaughlin, with the condition that an independent one-year evaluation is conducted.

“I need those experts to be able to assist us and evaluate this program in a way that’s responsible and not just something that’s a feel-good political statement that people want to make that we’re doing something about gun violence,” Benavente said during the meeting.

Following the meeting, he said that UNC Charlotte is conducting a separate gun violence study and that he would prefer that investments be made in Fayetteville neighborhoods that have gun violence.

He told The Fayetteville Observer that ShotSpotter's contract for another year was a compromise in order to secure a council majority vote for the independent evaluation.

The council had the option of approving ShotSpotter for $210,000 for one year or $630,000 for three years.

The initial ShotSpotter contract used $197,500 of American Rescue Plan Act funds, which could be used for another year, but if a three-year contract were approved, the city would take $210,000 from its general fund subsequent year past the next year of renewal, according to city documents.

“I believe very strongly the data will show that this is not a good use of $200,000,” Benavente said after the meeting.

In addition to Banks-McLaughlin, Benavente’s motion was also supported by council members Brenda McNair, Deno Hondros, Lynne Greene and Malik Davis.

Mayor Mitch Colvin, Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Jensen and council members D.J. Haire and Derrick Thompson were in opposition.

Fayetteville Police Department data

Police Chief Kemeberle Braden presented the Council with the Fayetteville Police Department’s analysis of the ShotSpotter data for 10 months, from September 2023 through this July.

Sensors for the gunshot detection system are at three sites in the city, across the Police Department's three districts.

The chief said that in 10 months, the system issued 569 alerts.

Of the 258 alerts in the Campbellton District, 908 shots were fired; Of 140 alerts in the Central District, 488 shots were fired; and 525 rounds were fired out of 171 alerts in the Cross Creek district, the chief said.

Braden said that of the total alerts, 107 alerts were associated with 911 calls, and 462 alerts had no 911 calls.

The top three areas where the system reported shots fired were in the 6700 block of Willowbrook Drive, the 600 block of West Mountain Drive and the 500 block of Reilly Road.

The chief said the data shows that the majority of alerts are between 9 p.m. Saturdays and 2 a.m. Sundays. He said the months that had the most alerts were October and December.

“(The data) allows the district commanders to identify trends within their zones and areas, and they can alter their patrolling in area,” Braden said.

He said that 11 arrests from the alerts that didn’t have associated 911 calls were made, and five guns were recovered from alerts without 911 calls.

Council weighs in

Councilman Davis said that Massey Hill residents in his district have told him they feel safe with the gunshot detection system in their neighborhood.

“I personally don’t feel comfortable with taking away from a community ... something that makes them feel safer,” Davis said.

Haire said the system is near two areas of his district, Murchison and Reilly roads, and he sees the technology as a plus for officers when 911 calls aren’t made.

He described the system as another tool to support officers.

Thompson said he believes the council’s No. 1 goal is to keep the community safe.

“It bothers me to have to sit here and listen about tools that we’re even considering taking away from the officers that keep us safe,” Thompson said.

Banks-McLaughlin said she thinks the gunshot detection system is working, but supported evaluating the system annually instead of having a three-year contract.

Describing herself as “fiscally conservative,” Greene said she questioned whether a three-year contract financially binds future councils.

Greene said she commended the Police Department for a decrease in violent crimes in the city, but can’t say if ShotSpotter contributed to that decrease.

Hondros said that while violent crime has decreased this year, it doesn’t mean officers were policing badly last year.

“And we’re not doing anything that much different this year to make it go down. It's just the ebb and flow sometimes,” he said.

While Braden said officers responded to 462 gunshot detection alerts that it didn’t have last year, Hondros questioned whether any of those alerts prevented a murder in Fayetteville.

“You can’t prove something that didn’t happen,” the chief responded.

Hondros said he wasn’t sure why the city would lock itself into a longer agreement when a one-year contract for the same price was an option.

McNair agreed.

Jensen said the council has already seen results that show the system is working in the city.

Protest

Representing Fayetteville Freedom For All, a human rights and equality advocacy organization, community activist Shaun McMillian spoke outside of Fayetteville City Hall before Monday night’s meeting, because public comments were not part of the Council discussion.

McMillian said that many residents questioned using ShotSpotter when it was first considered by the city.

“We question why it is being targeted toward Black and brown neighborhood … We questioned it as a waste of resources … We remain disappointed that ShotSpotter was ever brought on,” McMillian said.

McMillian said activists and residents are still demanding justice, accountability and transparency for the death of Artis.

He said that despite records requests for the autopsy report, death investigation and technology report, those records have not been released to the public, along with the council’s October vote for the release of police body cam video of Artis’ interaction with officers before his death.

McMillian and others asked how Artis was able to shoot himself if he was handcuffed.

“Let’s see the evidence of that being true,” he said. “Let's see a report that talks about how that happened. If that’s true, let’s make sure that never happens in Fayetteville again.”

Lisette Rodriguez, who is also with Fayetteville Freedom for All, said cities in “blue and red states” have stopped using the technology, making it a nonpartisan issue.

Reading headlines from around the country, she said an innocent Chicago man was incarcerated for 11 months because he was near an area where the system provided authorities with an alert, and Massachusetts senators have asked the Department of Homeland Security to investigate federal funds used for the technology, which has raised privacy concerns.

Carrol Olinger, Fayetteville field director for Action NC, an advocacy organization that seeks to challenge and reduce the root causes of poverty and social and economic inequality, said she thinks the money Fayetteville is spending on the system is better spent on public education, homelessness or other issues.

McMillian and Rodriguez said there have been stories of communities being harmed by ShotSpotter.

Charlotte and Winston-Salem have rejected ShotSpotter, while Durham canceled its contract after an independent Duke University study, McMillian said.

During the meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Jensen said that Durham didn’t renew the contract after its council changed members. She claimed that since then, Durham has seen about an 8% crime increase since no longer using the technology, while Fayetteville has seen a 7% decrease.

“As a mother and as a representative of the city, when something works, we need to keep moving,” she said.

Benavente said that if he were a bad statistician, he’d ask whether fewer cops are needed because crime is decreasing.

“That would be as ridiculous as saying that (in) Durham somehow their crime rate went up because they got rid of ShotSpotter …,” he said. “When you have people that don’t understand statistics making these very big broad claims, you end up making bad decisions.”

Benavente said he doesn’t think the city has given Braden direction or statisticians to look at all the data, becauseundefinedsupposed to be focused on responding to the 911 calls instead.

29 years of experience

Braden said he provided the council with the data it requested last year and disagreed with Benavente’s remarks that there’s no data to support ShotSpotter.

He said that during his 29 years in law enforcement, he’s learned to understand what a gunshot sounds like.

In October 2023, Emmanuel Lashon was shot and killed on Slater Avenue.

The chief said that despite fireworks going off for nearby Fayetteville State University's unrelated homecoming celebrations, ShotSpotter distinguished 21 gunshots and did not alert for the fireworks.

He said that in another case, ShotSpotter detected gunshots in an area, and officers found a body in the backyard of a residence despite no 911 calls being made.

“I don’t how long that body would have stayed there before we discovered (it), had we not been alerted by ShotSpotter … I would argue I provided more real-life citations on how this system has worked than you have provided as to how it does not work,” the chief said.

The mayor said the data that matters most to him is that crime and homicides are decreasing in Fayetteville.

“Fifteen real guns were picked up off the streets, 600 real shells were taken … So, at the end of the day, I don’t understand any justification for saying we’re going to check results,” the mayor said.

Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville activists push back against ShotSpotter technology