Three politicians are tired of hearing the sound of gunfire in their north Bronx nabes.
City Council members Andrew Cohen, Ritchie Torres and Andy King are calling on the NYPD to bring an experimental program, which uses microphones to pinpoint the sound of gunshots, to the 52nd and the 47th precincts.
Last month, the city announced a two-year, $1.5 million project to test gunshot detectors in conjunction with a company called Shotspotter.
The pols are now making an appeal to NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton, asking that he consider the 5-2 and the 4-7 as base points for the program.
“The safety of our community is my number one priority,” said Cohen (D-Riverdale). “I hope Commissioner Bratton takes our request into consideration so that together, we can take a new and improved approach to tracking shootings in our neighborhoods.”
The 47th precinct, which covers Woodlawn, Wakefield and Edenwald, has recorded 11 homicides so far this year, compared with only one in all of 2013. Shooting incidents are up 50% in the precinct as well, according to the most recent NYPD statistics.
“(This) would represent a 21st century approach to tracking and preventing shootings in some of the Bronx neighborhoods most plagued by gun violence,” said Torres (D-Tremont).
The Shotspotter system uses microphones fastened to rooftops and other elevated locations to pinpoint, or “triangulate,” gunfire and determine the exact location from which a shot was fired.
The NYPD tested similar detectors in Brownsville, Brooklyn, in 2011 — but never expanded the program citywide.
Bratton once sat on the board of the company, but stepped down when he rejoined the NYPD in January.
An NYPD spokesman couldn’t immediately answer questions about the department’s plans for the program, but Bratton has praised the technology in the past.
“The best systems are those that you can tie in with your camera systems,” the commissioner said at a City Council committee meeting in May. “You not only get recording of the gunshots, but you get the camera activation right away.”
Policymakers in the Bronx say they will welcome any high tech improvements to keep residents safe.
“This technology is desperately needed to help our police force combat the rise in shootings,” said King (D-Wakefield).
A spokeswoman for Shotspotter did not return calls for comment Friday.
