MANSFIELD — Mansfield police will be able to expand the coverage area for gunfire-detection technology in the city, thanks to a $272,000 state grant.
How large the expanded area will be won’t be determined until the actual wording of the grant is received, Chief Keith Porch said Monday afternoon.
The department applied in January for a grant that would allow the city to expand the coverage area to three miles, up from the current one mile.
“I can’t comment until I see the actual award,” Porch said, adding his department had also applied for additional grant funds for its automated license plate reader camera program.
Gov. Mike DeWine announced Monday the awarding of $3.7 million in statewide grants to local law enforcement agencies as part of the new Ohio Violent Crime Reduction Grant Program.
The first round of funds includes 18 grants that will be used toward local programs impacting 21 law enforcement agencies, the governor’s office said in an emailed press release.
According to the grant, the increased ShotSpotter coverage area will allow Mansfield police “to improve response time to incidents of gun violence and focus on high-risk offenders in geographic hot spots.”
The Ohio Violent Crime Reduction Grant Program, initially launched in 2021 with $8 million from the state’s operating budget, will now total $58 million with the addition of $50 million from the American Recovery Plan Act.
“One of the most important things that we can do to support our law enforcement officers is to give them the tools they need to keep themselves and the public safe,” DeWine said.
“By significantly increasing the amount of funding available, we can help more law enforcement agencies better combat crime and protect their communities.”
The city first instituted the technology in March 2021 using a state grant to cover all but $2,000 of the $49,500 annual cost.
ShotSpotter placed acoustic sensors on buildings and light poles, over a one-square mile area Mansfield’s 31-square mile area.
According to the company website, “ShotSpotter enables police, when they choose, to get reports of shots fired in a much shorter time frame – in Chicago, within 20 seconds instead of seven or eight minutes, according to their chief of police – and to build trust with the community and gather evidence, spent bullet casings, to begin to trace guns that could be used in crimes.”
Porch said in late January he was happy with what he had observed to that point.
“In my opinion, it has saved two or three lives,” the chief said Jan. 25.
One of those came about a month after the technology was deployed when the system detected multiple gunshots near a residence in the 200 block of South Diamond Street. Officers in the area also heard shots and several calls from residents came in via 911.
But ShotSpotter, which uses acoustic sensors on buildings and light poles, provided a specific location and an audio recording of the incident in less than a minute, allowing officers to more quickly close in on the site.
Officers racing to the Diamond Street scene stopped a fleeing vehicle and found a passenger suffering from at least two gunshot wounds. As officers assisted the injured man, they also found a second victim laying in the front yard of a nearby residence on Ford Avenue.
The victim was bleeding profusely from a leg wound, going in and out of consciousness. An officer applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding until emergency medical assistance arrived.
Porch said the rapid and pinpointed location of the shooting via ShotSpotter made a difference.
Deborah Mount, secretary of the Cherry Hill Neighborhood Watch Group, announced in January her group was for an expansion of the program.
“Our neighborhood has been having an increase of shots fired incidents in the last several months and numerous neighbors have contacted the mayor to ask if ShotSpotter could come to our neighborhood,” she said.
