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<P>As salaamu alaykum, Vladimir—</P>
<P><STRONG>ShotSpotter is maybe the most dangerous surveillance tech corporation
you’ve never heard of.</STRONG> Their audio surveillance has quietly been
installed in more than 100 U.S. cities — embedding police surveillance in our
neighborhoods.</P>
<P>Now, police and elected officials across the country are tapping into public
funds to expand ShotSpotter’s reach.</P>
<P><A
href="http://act.mpowerchange.org/sign/stop_shotspotter_surveillance/?t=1&akid=9459%2E582827%2EBvcez9"><STRONG>Sign
our petition: Stop ShotSpotter in our cities. Surveillance is not
safety.</STRONG></A></P>
<P><A
href="http://act.mpowerchange.org/sign/stop_shotspotter_surveillance/?t=2&akid=9459%2E582827%2EBvcez9"><IMG
style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: auto; MARGIN-RIGHT: auto" alt=""
src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.mpowerchange.org/images/shotspotter_final.png"
width=500 height=262></A></P>
<P><STRONG>Muslim communities know first-hand about the harm and fear that comes
from state surveillance.</STRONG> We’ve spent years opposing efforts like the
Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) programs that target Muslim communities.</P>
<P>That’s why MPower is joining a new coalition of anti-surveillance, racial
justice organizations — including Action Center on Race & the Economy (ACRE)
and Freedom to Thrive — to stop ShotSpotter, and all audio surveillance in our
communities.</P>
<P><STRONG>Here’s three things you should know about ShotSpotter:</STRONG></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; PADDING-LEFT: 30px"><STRONG>1. ShotSpotter
supercharges racist policing and surveillance — with a record of placing hidden
microphones in overwhelmingly Black and brown neighborhoods.</STRONG></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left">In Chicago, ShotSpotter was only installed in the 12
police districts with the largest Black and Latinx populations, putting 80% of
the city’s Black residents and 65% of the city’s Latinx residents at regular
risk for police violence.¹</P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; PADDING-LEFT: 30px" dir=ltr><STRONG>2. ShotSpotter
alerts routinely create dangerous situations, by sending police to chase down
dead-end reports of supposed gunfire that turn up nothing.²</STRONG></P>
<P dir=ltr>ShotSpotter markets its audio surveillance tech as primarily for
gunshot detection — but one study found that 91% of ShotSpotter-activated police
dispatches led to no evidence of gunfire or gun crime.³</P>
<P dir=ltr>There has never been any published testing of ShotSpotter’s ability
to tell the difference between gunshots and other loud noises like firecrackers
and cars backfiring.⁴ In court, judges have repeatedly questioned whether
ShotSpotter’s methods are reliable enough for its reports to be used in
trials.⁵</P>
<P style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px"><STRONG>3. Multiple people have been shot,
incarcerated, and killed by police in the aftermath of a ShotSpotter
alert.</STRONG></P>
<P>Michael Williams spent nearly a year in jail after being falsely accused of
murder on the basis of ShotSpotter reports. He was finally released after
prosecutors abandoned the ShotSpotter evidence and dropped all charges.⁶</P>
<P>13-year-old Adam Toledo was chased and shot by police, after putting his
hands up, following a ShotSpotter alert in Chicago.⁷</P>
<P><STRONG>Adam Toledo should be alive today. Michael Williams should not have
spent a crushing year behind bars due to racist policing aided by the
ShotSpotter algorithm.</STRONG></P>
<P><A
href="http://act.mpowerchange.org/sign/stop_shotspotter_surveillance/?t=3&akid=9459%2E582827%2EBvcez9"><STRONG>Sign
our petition to stop ShotSpotter. We need real solutions to gun violence, not
police tech tools that bring more harm to Black and brown
people.</STRONG></A></P>
<P>Companies like ShotSpotter distract from what we actually need to address gun
violence, and make our national policing and incarceration crisis even
worse.</P>
<P>Instead, our attention and funds should be redirected towards what
communities need — like healthcare, housing, and getting weapons of war off our
streets.</P>
<P><A
href="http://act.mpowerchange.org/sign/stop_shotspotter_surveillance/?t=4&akid=9459%2E582827%2EBvcez9"><STRONG>Sign
the petition: no ShotSpotter in our communities. We need safety — not
surveillance.</STRONG></A></P>
<P>Thanks for all you do.</P>
<P>Granate, Ishraq, and the MPower Change team</P>
<P> </P>
<P><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400">Sources:</SPAN></P>
<P>1. “<A
href="https://act.mpowerchange.org/go/63262?t=5&akid=9459%2E582827%2EBvcez9">ShotSpotter
is deployed overwhelmingly in Black and Latinx neighborhoods in Chicago</A>,”
MacArthur Justice Center.</P>
<P>2. “<A
href="https://act.mpowerchange.org/go/63263?t=6&akid=9459%2E582827%2EBvcez9">ShotSpotter
Generated Over 40,000 Dead-End Police Deployments in Chicago in 21 Months,
According to New Study</A>,” MacArthur Justice Center, May 3, 2021.</P>
<P>3. “<A
href="https://act.mpowerchange.org/go/63264?t=7&akid=9459%2E582827%2EBvcez9">OIG
Finds That ShotSpotter Alerts Rarely Lead to Evidence of a Gun-Related Crime and
That Presence of the Technology Changes Police Behavior</A>,” Officer Of
Inspector General, City of Chicago, August 24, 2021. </P>
<P>4. “<A
href="https://act.mpowerchange.org/go/63265?t=8&akid=9459%2E582827%2EBvcez9">How
ShotSpotter fights criticism and leverages federal cash to win police
contracts</A>,” NBC News, February 10, 2022.</P>
<P>5. “<A
href="https://act.mpowerchange.org/go/63266?t=9&akid=9459%2E582827%2EBvcez9">Police
technology under scrutiny following Chicago shooting</A>,” The Hill, April 21,
2021. </P>
<P>6. “<A
href="https://act.mpowerchange.org/go/63267?t=10&akid=9459%2E582827%2EBvcez9">How
AI-powered tech landed man in jail with scant evidence</A>,” AP News, August 19,
2021.</P>
<P>7. “<A
href="https://act.mpowerchange.org/go/63268?t=11&akid=9459%2E582827%2EBvcez9">Family
of Adam Toledo files wrongful death lawsuit as top prosecutor decides no charges
will be filed against cop who shot 13-year-old</A>,” Chicago Sun-Times, March
16, 2022.</P><IMG alt=""
src="https://act.mpowerchange.org/o.gif?akid=9459.582827.Bvcez9">
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=info@mpowerchange.org href="mailto:info@mpowerchange.org">Granate Kim,
MPower Change</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, June 16, 2022 5:00 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Surveillance isn’t safety: say no to
ShotSpotter</DIV></DIV>
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