The city of Detroit considered buying an electronic gunshot detection system that can pinpoint from which direction the shot was fired.
Suburbanites have an old-fashioned version of this.
If residents of Warren hear a shot, they boldly predict the shot came from the south.
And they’re usually right.
If people in Livonia hear a shot, they suppose it came from the east. A person living in Grosse Pointe guesses the gunshot came from the west or the southwest or maybe from their 50-inch TV set with surround sound.
A person south of Detroit may live in Windsor and guess that a car backfired because they’ve never heard gunshots before.
It’s not amazing that Detroit officials considered paying $2.6 million for the ShotSpotter system. What’s amazing is that they didn’t do it.
The Detroit City Council probably figured the system would blow up on New Year's Eve. That's when hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of Detroiters fire weapons into the air.

The city of Detroit considered buying an electronic gunshot detection system that can pinpoint from which direction the shot was fired.
Suburbanites have an old-fashioned version of this.
If residents of Warren hear a shot, they boldly predict the shot came from the south.
And they’re usually right.
If people in Livonia hear a shot, they suppose it came from the east. A person living in Grosse Pointe guesses the gunshot came from the west or the southwest or maybe from their 50-inch TV set with surround sound.
A person south of Detroit may live in Windsor and guess that a car backfired because they’ve never heard gunshots before.
It’s not amazing that Detroit officials considered paying $2.6 million for the ShotSpotter system. What’s amazing is that they didn’t do it.
The Detroit City Council probably figured the system would blow up on New Year's Eve. That's when hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of Detroiters fire weapons into the air.