In places like Chicago and other large cities where gun violence is high, technologies for detecting gunshots are important threads in the complex fabric of policing. While the merits of gunshot detection systems are sometimes challenged, their effectiveness is largely undisputed. In an article published by ABCNews in October 2022, Chicago’s Police Superintendent David Brown referred to the city’s gunshot detection system as an “intelligence network” that plays a big role not only in how law enforcement responds to and solves crimes but in how it helps prevent them, too.

Following their success in municipal applications, gunshot detection systems began to gain attention in commercial market segments such as K-12 education and retail. That has led to the solution’s growth and, thus, opportunities for security integrators not only for providing detection and notification, but for participating in conversations of a wider scope involving shooting prevention in general.