Is Bibb County, Georgia's ShotSpotter system actually working?
The short version: 13WMAZ digs into whether Bibb County's ShotSpotter gunshot detection actually speeds response times or produces arrests — and the answer looks murky at best.
Our Take
Credit to 13WMAZ for doing what too few local newsrooms bother with: asking a surveillance vendor's marketing pitch to show its homework. ShotSpotter (now rebranded Flock Safety's SoundThinking, or bundled into Flock's broader ecosystem depending on the contract) has spent years selling itself as a technology that helps cops get to shooting scenes faster and solve gun crimes. The actual track record, city after city, tells a messier story: lots of alerts sending officers to empty streets, few resulting arrests, and departments that can't produce clean data showing the system changes outcomes.
That gap between the sales pitch and the results matters because ShotSpotter is rarely deployed alone. It's usually one node in a wider sensor web that includes license plate readers, pole cameras, and analytics platforms — the same expansion Flock Safety has been driving nationwide. When a county can't show that a multimillion-dollar microphone network is actually helping deputies respond faster or make cases, that's not just wasted money. It's a warning sign about how easily these systems get renewed on faith rather than evidence, while the surveillance footprint around residents keeps growing regardless.
Bibb County residents deserve real answers, not vendor talking points, and so does every community sitting under a Flock camera or ShotSpotter sensor without ever voting on it. Check our camera map to see what's already watching your neighborhood, and head to our take-action page if you want to push your local officials to demand the same accountability 13WMAZ just did.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of 13WMAZ, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.