McKeesport using new system to track gunshots
By JEFF STITT
jstitt@yourmvi.com
While speaking on police matters during this month’s council meeting, Mc-Keesport Mayor Michael Cherepko announced the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system is in use in the city.
“ShotSpotter is up and running through the vast majority of our city right now,” Cherepko said. “You’re talking about a system that will identify where shots are fired within a matter of feet. It’ll tell you how many, what caliber and it’ll allow our officers to respond much more quickly than someone calling into 911 on a shots fired call.
“Keep in mind when you call into 911, someone could have heard those shots from three streets away. So you still don’t have a good idea of where it’s at. And many times, whoever may have fired the shots are on the way.”
During his mayoral budget address in December, which looked back on 2020 and forward to 2021, Cherepko said a $99,000 allotment from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would be used to install ShotSpotter. In March 2020, city council gave the mayor’s office the nod of approval to apply for the grant.
“It’s another resource we invested in to help make McKeesport — each and every day, we work to make it safer and a better place to live, a better place to work. And we will continue to do that.”
No members of the police department were present at the meeting.
The mayor also said the city currently has “probably pushing 150” cameras and License Plate Reader devices throughout the city help fight and deter crime.
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