FORT WORTH, Texas — People living and working in a high-crime area of Fort Worth are getting new technology that could help them feel safer.
Anita Carter has lived in the area for years, where she volunteers to help children and the elderly with necessities, like food. But sometimes, gunfire gets in the way.
"It's scary, just scary, especially when you hear it and it's boom, boom, boom," said Carter.
Carter said the gunfire even rings out in broad daylight and is more frequent on the weekends. She's convinced it's from people who don't live in the area.
Carter said there are times she hears the gunfire off in the distance, and then awaits to hear sirens. But she said most times, the siren never happens.
Carter's Stop Six neighborhood is where Fort Worth police officers are counting on technology to make it a safer place. Recently, the company Flock Safety installed safety cameras that are designed to capture data and information on potential criminal activity in the area.
The cameras have been installed in the 5400 block of East Berry Street.
Flock boasts that when community-based policing programs pair devices that capture objective evidence and machine learning to create and deliver unbiased investigative leads to law enforcement, it leads to crime reduction.
Carter hopes adding gunshot detection technology also decreases the gunfire she hears on a regular basis.
"It doesn't be the residents," Carter said. "I could be on the phone talking to one of the seniors and you can hear it on the phone, boom, boom, somebody out there shooting again."
The Flock system reads license plates on vehicles and sends that information to the police. It works in connection with gunshot detection technology. The cameras are mounted to utility poles in areas where police get a high number of emergency calls. The system is powered by solar panels attached to the cameras.
Contrary to popular belief, in some communities, the technology is not used when it comes to recording people, according to Flock Safety.
Holly Beilin handles communications for the Flock Safety. She wants people in the Stop Six area to be confident that their system is not designed to invade people's privacy.
"All it records is license plates, not people, not passersby," Beilin said. "We think that is important for people to understand."
Fort Worth police used this same technology in another neighborhood and got some pretty good results on reducing crime. According to Flock Safety, since late 2020, its system helped Fort Worth police make 521 arrests, seize 35 guns and recover 390 stolen vehicles.
Fort Worth police hopes to have the same successes in the Stop Six area.
During a city council meeting, Fort Worth Assistant Chief of Police Joseph Sparrow gave remarks about the department's collaboration with Flock Safety. After using the company's technology in a different neighborhood, Fort Worth PD hopes to convince the council to financially support them, as the department works to do more with Flock's gunshot detection technology.
The gunshot detection technology would measure acoustics from gunfire and give law enforcement a location where the gunfire happened, allowing officer to respond to the same area to start investigating.
The Fort Worth Police Department has collaborate with Flock to conduct a pilot program using gunshot detection technology, which is already in major cities across the country.
Since Carter volunteers much of her time in the Stop Six area week after week, nothing is more important than feeling safe.
"If they hear it and they are in the area, then they can get here immediately," said Carter.