Triggered by loud percussive sounds, the surveillance network captures audio clearly enough to triangulate the location of gunshots down to the exact block, determine how many rounds were fired and whether there were multiple shooters. ShotSpotter does not, however, purport to reduce overall gun violence.

Yet, a growing body of research questioning the system’s reliability in recent years has intensified scrutiny by activists and academics when those contract renewals came before local government bodies.

Critical reports by Chicago’s Office of Inspector General and the New York City Comptroller accused ShotSpotter of being a resource drain, often sending officers chasing alerts where no evidence of a shooting exists. In New York, the audit found that it also failed to detect more than 200 real incidents of gunfire in 2022 around Manhattan.

In Minneapolis, an examination of 4,100 police responses to ShotSpotter activations throughout 2022 shows about 70% with dispositions indicating police didn’t encounter anything – no victims, shell casings or physical evidence of a shooting – upon arrival, according to a Star Tribune analysis of 911 dispatch data.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

Police in Brooklyn Park will soon have a new tool to track and find vehicles wanted in connection with shootings, abductions, car thefts and other violent crimes.

The City Council earlier this month authorized the Police Department to enter into a $28,000 contract with Flock Safety to install eight license plate readers that use cameras to take photos of the rear license plates of vehicles as they pass by. The devices alert police about vehicles that might be connected to serious crimes, Police Chief Mark Bruley said.

The technology “is a huge step forward in that work,” Bruley said, noting it can help identify vehicles wanted across the metro when they come into the city of Brooklyn Park.

The cameras do not take photos of drivers’ faces, Bruley said. Nor will they be used to issue citations for speeding, parking or equipment violations. But the cameras can identify the color and type of vehicle and other features such as if a vehicle has damage, the chief said.

Several agencies that already have the system have shared information with Brooklyn Park police and “we have solved many of our violent crimes through this system,” Bruley said.

The Eden Park Apartments installed the system on its own, and earlier this year shared information with Brooklyn Park police about a vehicle believed to be connected to a shooting. Officers tracked the suspect vehicle to Fridley and made an arrest, closing a case “that would have not been solved for who knows how long. In less than 12 hours, it was all wrapped up,” Inspector Elliot Faust said.

Bruley said only detectives can access data that will be stored for 30 days to prevent unauthorized use. An outside firm will audit usage every two years to ensure the department is following state laws.

The city has not yet determined where the cameras will go, but hopes to have them operational in the next few months.

Thanks to advances in DNA technology, a man has received a 20-year prison term for a murder in the Uptown area of Minneapolis more than 40 years ago.

Matthew Russell Brown, 67, of Ingleside, Ill., was sentenced Wednesday in Hennepin County District Court after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in connection with the stabbing of Robert A. Miller at a home in the 3200 block of S. Girard Avenue in 1984.

With credit for time in jail since his arrest in June 2023, Brown is expected to serve the first 12½ years of his sentence in prison and the balance on supervised release.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said the linchpin in the case was a disposable cup discarded by Brown that contained DNA matching the blood at the scene.

“As we all know, advances in technology have improved DNA analysis,” the Minneapolis Police Department said in a statement released at the time of Brown’s arrest. “Over the past eight years, MPD homicide investigators assigned to the FBI’s Cold Case Task Force have been working diligently with the BCA Forensics Lab to identify DNA found at the scene and narrow down a possible list of suspects. One lead led to another until the MPD homicide investigators were able to identify a suspect in the case.”

At 2:30 a.m. on July 19, 1984, police arrived at Miller’s apartment , where two women in the hall said a man armed with a knife had broken into the building and attacked them.

Officers found Miller dead with “stab wounds to his face, head, chest, back and shoulders,” the complaint read.