GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Green Bay’s finance committee provided initial approval Tuesday night to spend nearly $1 million to help fight the city’s gun violence.
The city has already had 21 more gunshot incidents this year compared to last year. Compared to two years ago, gunshot incidents are up 315%.
The city is planning to spend $655,000 on a gunshot detection system. Police say the technology can instantly tell you the accurate location for outdoor gunfire.
“It can tell you different calibers of guns…how many guns are involved, how many shots are fired, and precise locations,” said Chief Chris Davis of the Green Bay Police Department.
The city is also planning to spend $88,000 on officer recruitment and retention, $40,000 on a law enforcement surveillance trailer, and $188,358 on NIBIN technology, a shell casing analyzer that links gun crimes quickly.
“It can be used to make links between cases here and other places where that same gun was used,” said Davis.
“We get results back on a high-profile case within six hours,” said Commander Paul Ebel of the Green Bay Police Department, who notes it previously took months to get the same information through the state.
The purchases total $971,358 and will be paid for through the city’s American Rescue Plan funds.
Davis tells FOX 11 a high-end estimate for the annual cost of the gunshot detection system is $71,000 per square mile where there are detection sensors
It would be too costly put the sensors up throughout the city’s 55 square miles, so the police department is currently looking at a coverage area of between 3 and 6 square miles.
“As much as we want to solve crimes, do we want the taxpayers of Green Bay shouldering all these costs?” said Alderperson Bill Galvin. “Especially if we’re helping out the other departments.”
Galvin and the rest of the city’s finance committee unanimously signed off on the purchases. However, they added a provision to research charging other municipalities for use of NIBIN.
FOX 11 asked Davis why the money was being put toward more reactive purposes instead of preventative measures against gun violence.
“That is on the horizon. We’re going to start kind of a deep dive study of our gun violence issue here in Green Bay with an organization called the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform.”
Davis hopes that study will start next month, with results back in spring.
Davis says he plans to make more funding requests, using the other half of the $2 million the city set aside of its American Rescue Plan funds for crime prevention, based on the gun violence study.
