North Raleigh Today

ShotSpotter failed to activate during a mass shooting that happened over the weekend, but Durham city officials are defending the warning system, which has been operational in parts of the community for approximately two weeks. 

"If it was indeed a drive-by shooting, the technology is not designed to pick up acoustical signatures from inside a vehicle or a building,” Mayor Pro Tem Mark-Anthony Middleton said in a WRAL report. “And if you combine a vehicle, and moving as well, the sensors aren't really designed or attenuated to pick up those type of incidents.” 

ShotSpotter technology is supposed to detect gunshots, and the shooting on North Miami Boulevard occurred within the area covered by the system. "However, my understanding is that there wasn't a corresponding ShotSpotter report,” Middleton said.

Given the parameters he mentioned, Middleton told WRAL the technology is working as expected, adding that anecdotal evidence he has seen shows ShotSpotter is functional. He also said that ShotSpotter is only one tool in the city’s fight to curtail violence.

"I believe that we're finally putting the pieces in place where we can look our people in the eye and have the moral authority to say we are literally trying everything in our power,” Middleton told WRAL, “but there's still more work to be done.”

The city opted to contract with ShotSpotter as a means to reduce the incidence of crime, especially among teens and young adults.

"I think there are literally hundreds of people in Durham County who want to see that change,” Durham District Attorney Satana Deberry, who was sworn in for a new term Tuesday, told WRAL of the high crime rate among that demographic.

Deberry said the district attorney's office has little involvement before a crime has been committed, but it is still committed to helping find ways to benefit the community.

"What our commitment to do is to be good community partners, making sure the most vulnerable people in our community are safe,” Deberry told WRAL “Whether that means being involved with diversion programs so that people are not involved with the criminal justice system to begin with, and have the opportunities for school and jobs, that’s what we’re committed to do." 

Victims in the weekend's mass shooting range in age from 17 to 24, and all of them are expected to survive. Durham Police said the drive-by shooting does not appear to be random, according to WRAL.