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As controversy grows over New Bedford’s use of Flock cameras, an older surveillance technology remains active, more than a month after the city’s contract for it was not renewed. And it may not be going away after all.
ShotSpotter — a technology that uses acoustic sensors mounted on poles to detect possible gunfire and send alerts to a command center — is still active in New Bedford, even though its contract ended June 30. Police responded to a ShotSpotter alert Thursday night, according to the police union.
Holly Huntoon, a spokesperson for the New Bedford Police Department, told The Light on Friday that the department’s decision not to renew the ShotSpotter contract may not be the last word.
“ShotSpotter is a good partner and has continued to provide their service beyond the contract expiration,” Huntoon said, “in hopes we can get to a place where the technology meets our needs both operationally and financially. Those discussions are ongoing.”
Amid budget cuts, the city announced in June that it would end the ShotSpotter program, which had operated in New Bedford since 2011, after concluding that it had low accuracy.
During budget hearings, Police Chief Jason Thody told the City Council that 911 calls were made in 76% to 90% of shootings and other shots-fired incidents, meaning that most of the time, police were alerted without ShotSpotter.
During a community meeting in late July about the Flock cameras — a controversial automated license plate reader system used by the New Bedford Police Department and recently suspended amid internal investigations — Thody said the department had canceled its ShotSpotter contract because the technology was not worth the cost.
The cost was about $800,000 over the last five years.
According to the Police Union, patrol officers responded late Thursday to a report of gunfire from ShotSpotter.
Near 199 State St., police found shell casings in the area and officers were also notified of property damage to a residence close to the location where a projectile was recovered, reported the New Bedford Police Union.
“I had been under the assumption that, since the contract wasn’t renewed, the ShotSpotter system would be turned off,” Lorenzo Gonzalez, president of the New Bedford Police Union, told the Light Friday. “But then I started getting notifications from it again.”
Gonzalez said he has received seven ShotSpotter notifications over the past 30 days, including one Thursday related to the incident on State Street.
He said he and most other officers still have the ShotSpotter app and continue to receive notifications.
In its 2025 annual report, ShotSpotter’s owner, the California-based company SoundThinking, stated that government contracting moves slowly and that the company sometimes keeps the service active.
“Even once we have secured a government contract, the renewal process can be lengthy and as time-consuming as the initial sale, and we may be providing our service for months past the contract expiration date without certainty if the renewal agreement will be signed or not,” reads the report.
A 2024 investigation by Wired and the Chicago news outlet South Side Weekly found that ShotSpotter in some cases continues sending alerts to police after a city’s contract ends. According to the outlets, records obtained through a California Public Records Act request showed that ShotSpotter remained in contact with the San Diego Police Department for more than 15 months after the city’s contract expired in September 2021.
Email Eleonora Bianchi at ebianchi@newbedfordlight.org.
Email Anastasia E. Lennon at alennon@newbedfordlight.org.
