D.C. Police Spend Millions on a Surveillance System That Detects Gunshots and Targets Black Communities

D.C. Police Spend Millions on a Surveillance System That Detects Gunshots and Targets Black Communities

This story was supported with a grant from Spotlight DC—Capital City Fund for Investigative Journalism. Jefferson Luna-Perez was shot to death on the afternoon of May 17, 2023, in the parking lot outside Roosevelt High School in Petworth. Less than a quarter mile away, a recording device perched on a roof was listening for gunshots in the area. That sensor is part of a gunshot-detection system called ShotSpotter that listens for gunshots around …