By SCBIZ Daily Staff 

Richland County Sheriff’s Department in cooperation with the South Carolina Research Authority has deployed a ShotSpotter Gunshot Location System in the county surrounding Columbia to address and prevent crimes involving firearms.

The hybrid GLS that operates with ShotSpotter sensors connect a combination of standard telephone lines and broadband wireless networks, providing immediate alerts of gunfire and forensic information to the sheriff’s dispatch center.

Recognizing the successful reduction of crime in areas where ShotSpotter systems are deployed, the SCRA awarded ShotSpotter with a grant to accelerate development of interoperability between sensors designed for telephone lines and those designed for wireless communications networks. The result is the hybrid ShotSpotter GLS deployed in Richland County.

SCRA CEO Bill Mahoney has seen the positive results achieved by the ShotSpotter GLS and is, “very pleased to be able to bring this technology to Richland County. Because SCRA administers the Southeast Region of the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center (NLECTC-SE) and has a staff of trained public safety professionals, we are in a unique position to furnish leading-edge law enforcement, homeland security and public safety technology through the southeastern United States, as is being done today in Richland County.”

The hybrid capability enables the existing ShotSpotter customers with telephone line sensors to more easily and cost-effectively expand their areas of coverage using broadband wireless networks, which many cities are deploying for public Wi-Fi and other municipal uses.

“The successful partnership between ShotSpotter and NLECTC-SE has resulted in ShotSpotter expanding its offerings of invaluable gunshot location technology to the public safety marketplace,” said ShotSpotter’s vice president of Engineering, Doug McFarlin.  “The system recently installed in Columbia, South Carolina, demonstrates ShotSpotter’s latest capability of combining wireless and wired sensors, interoperating and feeding alerts to a dispatch center console. This capability enables ShotSpotter to add wireless sensors to an existing system of telephone-line based sensors. Furthermore, customers now have the flexibility of choosing the sensor and communication method best suited for a particular location.”