Milwaukee Shotspotter Notification reports

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Wisconsin Open Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

1) Copies of all "Shotspotter Notification" reports filed by the Milwaukee Police Department with Shotspotter since January 1, 2021. These notification reports document instances in which MPD personnel have reached out to Shotspotter for support, perhaps because the system failed to detect a shooting or misclassified an incident. To assist with your search, I have attached two examples of these notification reports provided by the Chicago Police Department.

2) Copies of all Shotspotter responses to MPD notification reports filed since January 1, 2021. Examples of Shotspotter's responses to these reports can be found in the attached records provided by CPD.

I ask that all fees be waived as I am a journalist and intend to use the requested records to further the public's understanding of core government functions. I do not intend to use the records for any commercial purposes.

In the event you choose to impose fees, I request a detailed breakdown of the fees, including the hourly wage of each employ involved and an explanation justifying the employee hours required to fulfill the request.

Should you choose to reject this request or redact portions of it, I ask that you provide a detailed breakdown of the statutory exemptions and associated case law underlying your decision to withhold each/any portions from public review.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days.

Sincerely,

Todd Feathers

Hello,

I'd like to check in on the status of this request to see if you could provide me with an estimated date of completion.

Thanks very much for your help, and please let me know if you have any questions or if there's any other way I can assist with the search.

Best,
Todd

Hello Sgt. Kotarak,

I have just received the letter you mailed on August 16—thank you again for your help with this request. In response to your question: No, I am not seeking Shotspotter activation notices. My request was for communications between the Milwaukee Police Department and Shotspotter regarding incorrect or erroneous Shotspotter activations—instances in which Shotspotter failed to detect a gunshot, for example, or when it mislocated the gunshot.

The Chicago Police Department, as you've seen, handles these corrections through notification reports like the one I attached to my previous request. Does the Milwaukee Police Department have an equivalent system? If not, how does MPD notify ShotSpotter if the company has made an error?

Thank you very much!
Todd

Hi Sgt. Kotarak,

Thank you very much for the suggestion. I did a bit more Googling before reaching out to Nasim and found the attached MPD policy document outlining proper ShotSpotter alert response procedures. I think the information I'm after would be included in the "SST Tracking Database" mentioned on page three of the policy. As such, I'd like to revise my request to:

1) A complete, up-to-date copy of the Milwaukee Police Department's SST Tracking Database, as described in the attached MPD Standard Operating Procedure 745.10(I)).

2) Copies of all Detailed Forensic Reports supplied by ShotSpotter to the Milwaukee Police Department and/or its Fusion Center since Jan. 1, 2020.

Thank you very much again for the help, and please let me know if you have any questions.

Best,
Todd Feathers