Cambridge’s ShotSpotter gunfire-detection system is operational across all previously covered parts of the city, a police spokesperson said in a 7:55 p.m. email Monday.
ShotSpotter was reactivated for the Emergency Communications Center late Friday afternoon and for Cambridge police on Monday morning, said Jennie Lopez, director of communications for the police.
The City Council voted 6-3 at an Aug. 3 special meeting to turn the system back on after first voting May 18 to disable ShotSpotter in Cambridge. At that time, a five-member majority said there was no evidence the system keeps anyone safe, and a fear that the system could be used for surveillance by the federal government.
Then came the July 4 killing of Xavier Bautista, 32, a Public Works employee for the city, near his home in The Port neighborhood. If ShotSpotter was active and happened to hear the shooting, a faster response could have saved Bautista’s life, some said.
The system is back on for 90 days while city manager Yi-An Huang brings the question of a permanent return to residents. The decision will be made with a form of direct democracy little used in Cambridge called the resident assembly, described by mayor Sumbul Siddiqui as “a representative group of Cambridge residents, selected by a lottery, to hear evidence from experts, stakeholders and community members.”
Leaders of the Black Response group and the Stop ShotSpotter Camberville Coalition said Saturday that they anticipated this moment.
“We recognize that some people in our community view the deactivation of ShotSpotter devices as yet another form of disinvestment in neighborhoods too long abandoned by Cambridge city government. We believe the best way to respond to this is to invest in these very neighborhoods,” the groups said in an email.
