On March 22, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton, appearing on WABC’s The Rita Cosby Show, said people speaking critically of NYC’s new gunshot microphone system need to “get a life.”
Breitbart News previously reported on the installation of the ShotSpotter microphone system to capture the sounds of ongoing crime in heavily gun-controlled New York City. According to WNYC, a ShotSpotter system installed in Newark, New Jersey, sent gunshot alerts 3,632 times over a three-year period, yet resulted in only 17 arrests. “Seventy-five percent” of the alerts were false alarms.
During that period, the system cost Newark taxpayers $80,000 a year.
At such expense with so few arrests questions have arisen as to whether the real purpose of the microphones is to listen in on conversations rather than to record gun shots. According to the Village Voice, the American Civil Liberties Union claims at least two conversations recorded on such microphones “ended up as evidence in criminal trials.”
When Rita Cosby asked Bratton about these things, he responded:
The advocates have to get a life. We’re not out there eavesdropping; that’s not what the system does, that’s not what it’s designed to do, that’s not what it’s capable of. So, get a life and move on to some other issue. We’re not out there eavesdropping on public conversations. I’ve got enough to do without doing that.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.