2008 Woodie Awards
A last ditch effort to solve crime
Issue date: 11/20/08
Like many others, I have watched the city of Baltimore go through a transition period, from decaying urban center to a city that shows signs of totally giving up. Staunch Baltimore Defenders, I feel your blood pressure rising, but I will defer to a paraphrasing of John Updike: "The true Baltimorean who defends his city, has got to be, in some sense, kidding."
I cite as evidence of my claim of quittance, on the part of the metro area, the recent decision to install gunshot detectors in the greater Charles Village area. A cursory analysis will reveal that with a typical muzzle velocity of around 1,200 feet per second, bullets travel faster than sound, and while a gunshot detector may allow more rapid police response, it will do little for the average victim of violent crime - the bullet having reached its stopping place three times faster than its sound can possibly travel.
As far as locating places of crime goes, I understand the potential value of this tool in apprehending criminals. The fact remains that almost every security bulletin I see posted on the Hopkins Security Web site ends with some sort of phrase to the effect of "search results were negative" read, "The perpetrator of this crime, who typically fits a very specific profile (with nauseating frequency), got away, again."
I was awakened, literally twice in the past week, by various criminal actions. The first was on Monday morning, by a Baltimore police officer firing live rounds into a dump truck 25 feet from my room in order to test the gunshot detector. (It is of course illegal to discharge a firearm within the city limits of Baltimore.) I observed what seemed like questionable safety measures taking place as an officer passed a loaded gun up to the firing officer, who was literally standing in the bed of the dump truck enduring the live round firing. I will give credit to a system that is so high-tech that it can tell the difference between a blank round and a live round, but will certainly fault the testing procedures, which did not make me feel safe in any way. This is coming from a gun owner who understands gun safety, not from a whacko liberal gun-confiscating Washington, D.C. city legislator.
I cite as evidence of my claim of quittance, on the part of the metro area, the recent decision to install gunshot detectors in the greater Charles Village area. A cursory analysis will reveal that with a typical muzzle velocity of around 1,200 feet per second, bullets travel faster than sound, and while a gunshot detector may allow more rapid police response, it will do little for the average victim of violent crime - the bullet having reached its stopping place three times faster than its sound can possibly travel.
As far as locating places of crime goes, I understand the potential value of this tool in apprehending criminals. The fact remains that almost every security bulletin I see posted on the Hopkins Security Web site ends with some sort of phrase to the effect of "search results were negative" read, "The perpetrator of this crime, who typically fits a very specific profile (with nauseating frequency), got away, again."
I was awakened, literally twice in the past week, by various criminal actions. The first was on Monday morning, by a Baltimore police officer firing live rounds into a dump truck 25 feet from my room in order to test the gunshot detector. (It is of course illegal to discharge a firearm within the city limits of Baltimore.) I observed what seemed like questionable safety measures taking place as an officer passed a loaded gun up to the firing officer, who was literally standing in the bed of the dump truck enduring the live round firing. I will give credit to a system that is so high-tech that it can tell the difference between a blank round and a live round, but will certainly fault the testing procedures, which did not make me feel safe in any way. This is coming from a gun owner who understands gun safety, not from a whacko liberal gun-confiscating Washington, D.C. city legislator.
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