PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Officials confirmed Friday that the Portland City Auditor is now investigating the gun-shot detection tool ShotSpotter for potentially violating city lobbying codes.
The company claims to use microphones on light posts to alert officers to the location of gunfire, and it is one of four companies hoping to win a contract with the city for a new pilot program slated to start in March.
PDX Privacy Director Chris Bushick said she’s glad the auditor is looking into this issue before a contract is awarded.
“We have seen reports and public records showing that Shotspotter employees were working closely with the police and the community oversight group, trying to get a contract with the city,” Bushick said. “And we do have concerns that the process was not transparent.”
In a statement provided on Saturday, PPB officials denied that.
“That is an erroneous allegation. … Captain Crooker was assisting them in their efforts to explore ideas to help Portland address gun violence, and provided information at their request about Shotspotter. That meant that he communicated with Shotspotter, as he would any potential service provider that was being considered. PPB is careful to remain neutral about the Shotspotter program and we did not want to be seen as influencing the discussions in any way. His work was specifically aimed at helping decision makers with complete, unbiased information,” PPB said (italicized emphasis theirs).
Bushick said her organization is concerned about always-on microphones being placed in neighborhoods, and what that data collection would mean for residents’ privacy.
Those concerns as well as equity questions are shared by a Freedom to Thrive community organizer named Aje Amaechie, who said she fears whatever gunshot detection technology the city chooses will be disproportionately placed in communities of color.
“Black people, brown people, immigrants have been surveilled with whatever technology was the technology at the time,” Amaechie said. “So in slavery days, black people were required to carry a lantern at night because that was the technology at the time. To be seen at all times. And so, knowing that technology is always being adapted to surveil the people that are most marginalized.”
The city’s request for proposal said: “The technology must be suited to implementation in a data driven and transparent approach to mitigate gun violence…”
The city also said it wants to ensure any technology and the data it collects are obtained constitutionally and with respect for privacy rights.
But Bushick said her organization remains concerned about privacy and government transparency in this process.
“And assuming that was not the case, then what happens moving forward?”, Bushick said. “Say Shotspotter gets the contract and then the auditor later finds that they did violate lobbying rules – what happens then?”
This is not the first time ShotSpotter has been accused of violating lobby codes to help secure a contract.
Public record shows the company was penalized in 2019 by the City of Oakland’s Public Ethics Commission after they found Shotspotter violated both their lobbyist registration act and the Oakland campaign finance reform act.
In that case, the company pleaded “no contest” and agreed to pay a fine of $5,000 on equipment that Bushick said could potentially cost millions “is the cost of doing business.”
While the mayor’s office said they are also looking into possible violations, ShotSpotter told KOIN 6 News they have yet to hear from the city on this.
“While we have been made aware of the situation through the media, at this time we have yet to be notified through official city channels, so we cannot comment,” according to the company’s statement.