Endicott Police technology upgrades include first ShotSpotter in the area, cameras

The Endicott Police Department revealed new state-funded technology to be used for investigation and prevention on Wednesday, including one which is the first of its kind in the Southern Tier.

Endicott Police Chief Patrick Garey unveiled the new technology after the department received $770,000 in state funding for enhancements, with a portion of the funding being used to purchase a ShotSpotter gunfire detection system. The department is the first in the Southern Tier with access to the device.

Endicott received the funding in May after applying in the fall for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's Law Enforcement Technology fund.

On May 13, Hochul announced $127 million had been secured to provide 378 police departments and sheriffs’ offices outside of New York City with new technology and equipment.

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How ShotSpotter detects gunfire in Endicott

Garey said the technology will help officers quickly identify gunfire, typically in less than a minute, with the acoustic shot recognition technology.

"In most instances if a gun does go off, we're going to know about it before anyone calls 911," he said.

The device uses AI to determine whether a sound has reached the appropriate decibel level to potentially be gunfire, and it can provide an exact location of where the sound originated. The audio file is then reviewed by an officer who can check the identified sound.

Funding for the ShotSpotter covers installation and three years of use. After the three years, the department will pay yearly for the service.

"It's an investigative tool, hopefully it'll work as a crime prevention tool and it could potentially be a life-saving tool as well," Garey said.

Cameras, LPRs and other investigative tools

Within the next three to six months, pole cameras will also be installed in the village's downtown area, including all of Washington Avenue, the parking lots behind the avenue on both the east and west sides and along the length of Broad Street and Monroe Street.

This project constitutes $300,000 of the funding, the largest expense. The area is currently not monitored by cameras.

Dashboard cameras with built-in license plate readers have also been installed in the department's police vehicles with this funding. The department already had 10 fixed LPRs in use, but these will specifically be used in vehicles.

Garey said license plate readers are constantly recording, and any stored data is deleted after 30 days. This data is shared with the Southern Tier Crime Analysis Center.

How Crime-lite assists police investigations

Another tool, Crime-lite, is used to identify bodily fluid, fingerprints and latent evidence at a crime scene by using multi-spectral illumination.

Endicott Police Department Detective Crystal Kim said one Crime-lite device is able to do the work of multiple forensic investigation tools at once, and it expedites the process of evidence processing by capturing pictures.

The light assists detectives with locating body fluids, fingerprints, gunshot residue and other traces of physical evidence such as glass, fibers and hair.

She said it is also useful in assault-level cases, where it can be used to see bruises on the victim's body before they are visible to the naked eye.

Kim is a part of the Endicott Police Department Bomb Squad, which now has access to a FARO 3D Crime Scene Scanner through a grant provided to the bomb squad separately from the $770,000 LETECH Grant.

The system is meant to investigate and document the crime scene. It is used at explosive recovery or post-blast sites, but it can also be used for any crime scene where a 3D scan would be useful, according to Kim.

"They're all beneficial to me as a detective, I use all of them," she said.

Garey said the Village of Endicott does not have many instances of violent crime between strangers, but he believes that new technology allows the department to get ahead on any investigation and potentially prevent these crimes from happening.

"I think that adds a measure of comfort for people that they know that the area is being watched," he said. "I think from a perception end of things, I think it helps out a lot."

This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: NY village police department is first in region to have ShotSpotter