Community Education Event: ShotSpotter & Public Safety - events

2/11: Community Education Event: ShotSpotter & Public Safety (Cambridge)

Community Education Event: ShotSpotter & Public Safety 1

245 Main Street

venue: CIC

tech

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On Wednesday, February 11, The Black Response (TBR), as part of the Stop ShotSpotter Camberville Coalition, will host a dinner and community education event at CIC in Kendall Square (245 Main Street, Cambridge) to examine the impacts of ShotSpotter, a network of highly sensitive microphones marketed as gunshot detection technology. While promoted as a public safety tool, ShotSpotter functions as a form of audio surveillance that is disproportionately deployed in Black and Brown neighborhoods (The Port and Riverside neighborhoods in Cambridge), raising serious concerns about privacy, accuracy, and the expansion of police surveillance. Locally, ShotSpotter microphones are funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the parent agency of ICE, heightening concerns for vulnerable community members who are undocumented, on Temporary Protected Status (TPS), or living under other tenuous immigration statuses at a time of increased ICE raids and federal policing violence. This raises urgent questions about federal overreach and the ability of the federal government to bypass local governance in a city that has committed to being a sanctuary city; through the welcoming city ordinances.

At the event, Boston University Professor Spencer Piston will deliver a critical presentation on ShotSpotter, dispelling the company’s claims and explaining its local impacts. Cambridge and Somerville residents will also have the opportunity to share their perspectives through an anonymous survey. Free childcare will be provided. This event is co-sponsored by the SURJ Boston Prison Abolition Working Group, SURJ Boston, the Massachusetts Pirate Party, and Defund Somerville PD.

Time: Doors open at 5:30 pm; Potluck dinner is at 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Bring a dish to share if you can. Free childcare provided.

Registration: https://forms.gle/5QBESN6LoSLd9G6A8

post id: 7913362335

posted: 2026-02-05 20:40

updated: 2026-02-05 20:40

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