ShotSpotter® is Now SoundThinking™

I have some very exciting news to share: as of April 10, 2023, ShotSpotter, the company, will be known publicly by a new brand name. Our name will be SoundThinking™.

Why change our corporate identity, and why now?

Several reasons. As most of us know, law enforcement faces unprecedented challenges, including:

• Increased demand, driven by rising crime rates;
• Reduced staffing;
• A real need for better community collaboration;
• A real need to improve transparency;
• And probably most important, a very real need to enhance trust in the communities they serve and protect.

ShotSpotter established the acoustic gunshot detection category more than 25 years ago. This product and technology were revolutionary by allowing law enforcement to receive real-time notifications of a firearm discharge, with a precise location identified. This enabled public safety personnel to arrive more quickly than the traditional 9-1-1 call.

Getting law enforcement (and first responder EMS, as needed) to a scene more quickly can have profound impacts, including getting victims the care they need and mitigating the severity of injuries. Indeed, these can be life-or-death situations and every moment matters.

We’re proud of the impact ShotSpotter has made with over 150 customers and the communities they serve.

But as the public safety landscape has evolved, we needed to transform with it.

To address these challenges, we have expanded our suite of transformative solutions to empower law enforcement and civic leaders to make sound decisions that help create safer and healthier neighborhoods.

At our core, we’re a mission-driven public safety technology company. But the fact is, we’re a different company from the one that started 25 years ago. Our mission has expanded far beyond acoustic gunshot detection and It’s time that our name reflected our full suite of solutions and strategic advisory services.

We are more than just ShotSpotter, and we needed an updated identity to reflect this.

What’s in a name?

A brainstorming session with some of the SoundThinking team.

SoundThinking represents our commitment to providing innovative technologies and products that assist with investigations and resource deployment, as well as rich data that can aid community violence prevention programs.

SoundThinking also embodies the sound strategic advice we provide to the individuals and groups that directly deliver public safety to their communities – all with the goal of helping to create safer neighborhoods and greater community confidence.

The name “SoundThinking” pays homage to our acoustic roots and history, while also reflecting logical, good reasoning and decisions — ideals we aim to live by for the benefit of our customers and their communities.

From a visual perspective, our new visual identity – of an owl turning its head – embodies the wisdom, intelligence, and experience that goes into sound thinking.  It’s an apt symbol in more ways than one. Owls actually turn their heads 90 degrees to better locate objects, using a similar approach to our acoustic sensors that triangulate sounds to identify the location of gunfire.

So what are these solutions and how do they work together?

We’re very proud to introduce our SafetySmart Platform™.

The SafetySmart Platform is an integrated suite of four data-driven tools enabling law enforcement and community organizations to be more efficient, effective, and equitable in driving positive public safety outcomes. Designed with a holistic focus on public safety in mind, our SafetySmart platform ensures the right resources are provided when and where they’re needed most.

The SafetySmart Platform includes:

ShotSpotter®, the leading acoustic gunshot detection system that alerts police to virtually all gunfire within a city’s ShotSpotter coverage area within 60 seconds, helping reduce police response times to gun incidents and helping to save lives.

CrimeTracer™, the leading law enforcement search engine enables investigators to search through more than 1 billion criminal justice records from across jurisdictions to generate immediate tactical leads and quickly make intelligent connections.

CaseBuilder™, a one-stop investigative management system for tracking, reporting, collaborating on and clearing cases. It produces a single electronic courtroom-ready document for prosecutors to help take offenders off the streets.

ResourceRouter™ , software that directs the deployment of patrol or community group resources in an objective way to maximize the impact of limited resources and improve community safety.

If you want to learn more about our SafetySmart platform, I encourage you to visit our new website for details on our industry-leading solutions. Our integrated solutions bring together specialized software and objective, constantly-updated data to help law enforcement and civic leadership better protect their communities.

Public safety is at a critical juncture with demand for police services rising while staffing levels decrease, and there is a requirement for police to be more efficient, transparent, and accountable. As always, SoundThinking will continue to be a leader and pioneer in providing the highest quality and impactful suite of products and services in the public safety space. We invite you to join us and learn more as we embark on this exciting new chapter in our company’s history.