SHOTSPOTTER NATIONAL GUNFIRE INDEX REVEALS RECORD 141,452 INCIDENTS ACROSS THE U.S. IN 2019

NEWARK, Calif. – March 25, 2020 -- ShotSpotter, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSTI), the leader in solutions that help law enforcement officials identify, locate and deter gun violence, today announced the results of its annual National Gunfire Index (NGI), reporting that, amongst its customers, San Diego, Palm Beach County, Florida and Salinas, California were among the city areas with the largest reductions in gunfire in 2019 as compared to 2018.

The National Gunfire Index is compiled annually based on U.S. cities using ShotSpotter technology during 2019.  ShotSpotter detected 141,452 gunfire events in 2019, an increase of 32 percent over the 107,000 incidents reported in 2018. This increase is primarily due to the expansion of the ShotSpotter customer base and expansion of coverage areas for existing customers.

The accuracy of the ShotSpotter system reached an aggregated rate of 97 percent across all customers for 2019, including a very small false positive rate of less than 0.5 percent of all reported gunfire incidents. ShotSpotter alerts are monitored 24/7 by acoustic technicians who review all gunshot events in the company’s Incident Review Center (IRC), after they have first been qualified by the patented machine classification system.

According to the NGI, the city of San Diego, a customer since 2016, experienced a significant 17 percent reduction in gunfire incidents in 2019 compared to 2018. Palm Beach County, Florida has been using ShotSpotter for eight years and experienced a 12 percent decrease year over year while Salinas, California, a ShotSpotter city since 2016, saw a 10 percent drop in gun violence in 2019 as compared to 2018.

“We continue to see reductions in gunfire incidents over time as a result of a multi-pronged initiative that includes technology such as ShotSpotter, community engagement and proactive policing,” said Salinas Chief of Police, Adele Fresé. “ShotSpotter has made a significant impact in our ability to respond to and deter gun violence in our city.”  

While New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July are consistently known for higher gunfire activity due to celebratory use of guns, the National Gunfire Index revealed that other holidays also saw increased gunfire activity in 2019 when compared to the previous year’s numbers for those days. These holidays included Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Other key findings include:

• The busiest hours of the day for gunfire incidents were from 11:00 pm to 1:00 am local time.
• The least active hours of the day for gunfire events were during the period from 7:00 am to 10:00 am.
• Saturday night continued to rank as the busiest night of the week for gunfire activity.

As the leader in gunshot detection, ShotSpotter has compiled one of the largest databases of gunfire statistics and trends in the world. The company has made its data available to hospitals, research institutions and other organizations to advance learning in areas such as measuring improvements in transport time of gunshot wound victims and understanding the impact of proximity to gun violence on overall physical and mental health.

“We are pleased to share the results of our annual ShotSpotter National Gunfire Index, which provides important data on gun violence trends and we believe can contribute to efforts to strategically combat gun violence,” said ShotSpotter President and CEO Ralph A. Clark. “Despite the expanding shelter-in-place rules for COVID-19 in cities across the US, we are seeing similar levels of gunfire in the last few weeks relative to this time last year. We appreciate the heroic efforts of law enforcement as they take on the virus and persistent community gun violence simultaneously.”

About ShotSpotter Inc.

ShotSpotter (NASDAQ: SSTI) provides acoustic gunshot detection and precision-policing solutions to help law enforcement officials and security personnel prevent and reduce gun violence and make cities, campuses and facilities safer. The company’s flagship product, ShotSpotter® Flex™, is the leading gunshot detection, location and forensic analysis system, and is trusted by over 100 cities.  ShotSpotter® Missions™ uses artificial intelligence-driven analysis to help strategically plan patrol missions and tactics for maximum crime deterrence. ShotSpotter has been designated a Great Place to Work® company.