PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – A plan to start up a controversial program designed to detect and locate gunshots is now moving forward in Portland.

Mayor Ted Wheeler’s staff told the Focused Intervention Team’s community oversight group on Thursday he will bring a proposal to the city council to adopt the ShotSpotter technology.

ShotSpotter is technology from a national company designed to identify and locate gunshots using microphones placed in neighborhoods, which are then transmitted to the Portland Police Bureau. Portland leaders hope this tool can reduce growing gun violence.

KOIN 6 News learned Portland Police Bureau Chief Chuck Lovell got the mayor to agree to implement the technology on a trial basis.

The mayor’s office said Wheeler intends to do community outreach to put together the pilot project — including gathering ideas of where to set up the technology in Portland.

“We will be putting together a proposal to bring to council, we will be working with council offices and making outreach to the community to determine the details of what that pilot may look like,” said Stephanie Howard, Mayor Wheeler’s director of community safety.

It will be up to the city council to decide whether to approve the pilot project, but it is not clear when that vote will happen.

Meanwhile, there’s also opposition against ShotSpotter with some calling it “big brother surveillance.” There are also issues about its accuracy and questions about whether it would be used to target members of the BIPOC community.

So far, there have been more than 950 shootings in Portland in 2022 with almost 300 people injured and nearly 60 deaths.