Many crimes go unreported, making the true scope of crime unknown, and criminal justice reform based on potentially limited data. An acoustic gunfire detection system (AGDS) broadens the data available and provides a unique picture of gun use and violence in communities, separate from crime reported by victims. Using data from an AGDS in the City of St. Louis, this study models variation in community rates of calls to the police for gunshots detected. The results provide new insights into the prevalence of gunfire in a high crime community. We find that community residents are more likely to call the police when the incident was a homicide, and communities with a higher proportion of Black residents are less likely to call 911, net of community disadvantage and violent crime. Policies that encourage community building and improved access to the police and technology are discussed.
Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 33 citations exist upstream.