After heated meeting, Little Rock, Arkansas reinstates contract with ShotSpotter

Following a heated meeting Tuesday, Little Rock, Arkansas’ Board of Directors voted to reinstate a contract with ShotSpotter — just two months after it voted against renewing the agreement due to disappointment with the tech’s performance.

The reversal came as board members weighed continuing to pay for the technology, which has been in use by the Little Rock Police Department since 2018 and is estimated to cost the city $188,000 annually, according to the Arkansas Times.

In February, the city’s board voted to end the contract. However, just a month later, that vote to cancel the contract — which was lauded by civil liberties groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation — was expunged by board members and put back onto its agenda for vote, setting the stage for Tuesday’s reversal.

Little Rock’s Ward 5 Director Lance Hines, a proponent of the system who led the motion to expunge the first vote, said that the technology was “worth every penny.” During the expungement meeting in February, Little Rock Police Chief Heath Helton said the tool was valuable for gun crime investigations.

However, critics of the system, like EFF and several community members who spoke out against it at Tuesday’s meeting, say it gives the police a pathway to unmitigated surveillance, creates unequal harm for marginalized communities and fails to improve public safety as promised. One Little Rock resident said: “Surveillance is not safety. Surveillance is not safety,” according to KTHV Little Rock. Another attendee was ejected from the meeting, and several joined in chants to disrupt the meeting, the Arkansas Times reported.

The decision comes as several cities across the country have made decisions on their use of ShotSpotter, weighing the technology’s benefits with its alleged risks. At the beginning of 2025, the police department in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, announced it had cancelled its contract following required budget cuts. And, in February, the New York City Police Department decided to extend its ShotSpotter contract for three years, in a deal worth $21.8 million. New York City’s decision was especially controversial given that an audit published last June 2024 by City Comptroller Brad Lander found the technology only identified confirmed shootings in 13% of cases.