<story><title>ShotSpotter requests to be held in contempt rather than disclose its methodology</title><url>https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics/shotspotter-held-in-contempt-of-court/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hnThrow280</author><text>I did R&amp;amp;D work for an NGO developing a clone of shotspotter and its kind.  I spent an enormous amount of time examining all the variants on the market, including the last two decades of military versions from around the world.  I documented all of their various accuracies across all the various axes, how many microphones they used, etc.  I also went deep into the academic research to learn all the varied algorithms in use.&lt;p&gt;When I mentioned it to a family member who is also a police officer, he related that a shotspotter had detected an explosion &amp;quot;right in a guy&amp;#x27;s backyard.&amp;quot;  It was clear to me that no device on the market, nor algorithm could figure out that close of a pinpoint.  Of course I kept my mouth shut so as to not ruin a holiday.  But that was just more undoing of my trust and more indoctrination in one is supposed to remain in a state of denial or cognitive dissonance.&lt;p&gt;Anyway, just another police technology like polygraphs, DNA, and fingerprints with two stories.  One, what it actually does, and two, what police pretend it does.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>daenz</author><text>A piece of advice because you&amp;#x27;re using a throwaway account: it will be easier for people to believe your claims if you give some kind of inside information about why it doesn&amp;#x27;t work other than &amp;quot;it just doesn&amp;#x27;t work&amp;quot;</text></comment>
<story><title>ShotSpotter requests to be held in contempt rather than disclose its methodology</title><url>https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics/shotspotter-held-in-contempt-of-court/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>hnThrow280</author><text>I did R&amp;amp;D work for an NGO developing a clone of shotspotter and its kind.  I spent an enormous amount of time examining all the variants on the market, including the last two decades of military versions from around the world.  I documented all of their various accuracies across all the various axes, how many microphones they used, etc.  I also went deep into the academic research to learn all the varied algorithms in use.&lt;p&gt;When I mentioned it to a family member who is also a police officer, he related that a shotspotter had detected an explosion &amp;quot;right in a guy&amp;#x27;s backyard.&amp;quot;  It was clear to me that no device on the market, nor algorithm could figure out that close of a pinpoint.  Of course I kept my mouth shut so as to not ruin a holiday.  But that was just more undoing of my trust and more indoctrination in one is supposed to remain in a state of denial or cognitive dissonance.&lt;p&gt;Anyway, just another police technology like polygraphs, DNA, and fingerprints with two stories.  One, what it actually does, and two, what police pretend it does.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pkongx</author><text>&amp;gt; I documented all of their various accuracies across all the various axes&lt;p&gt;If sharable, any links to these documents?</text></comment>