As NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio prepares to sign into law a new surveillance-technology disclosure law known as the POST Act, public defenders are focusing on the role of ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology, an automated sensor system that they say is leading to over-policing of communities of color. Events triggered by the system ​may lead to police investigations resulting in arrests for reasons other than gun-related crimes, leading policy critics to question its usefulness and intended purpose, according to The City.

Jerome Greco, an attorney at Legal Aid’s Digital Forensics Unit, worries that ShotSpotter contributes to the over-policing of communities of color, signaling to officers that “they have to find where this gunfire came from and evidence of it,” he said.