St. Louis technology detects lots of gunfire, but calls often lead to a dead end

ST. LOUIS — A high-tech system used by police to detect gunshots sent officers into neighborhoods looking for signs of gunfire more than 15,000 times last year in St. Louis and St. Louis County.

But in an overwhelming number of cases there was nothing to be found: no shooting victim, no gunman and no reason to investigate.

The ShotSpotter gunshot detection system, run by a publicly traded California company that uses microphones to pinpoint gunfire, now covers about 14 square miles of high-crime areas in the city and North County.