The funny thing about the below article is that I saw a military version of this being tests that will attach to troop vehicles in Iraq. The unit cost of these? About $20,000 a piece including mounting, calibration, software, and monitoring equipment. Read below to see how much Chicago is paying for the same technology. Isn't the military suppose to be paying the outragous prices not the city governments? What's up with that? The cool thing here that they don't tell you is that it can even tell you the caliber of bullet and (in some cases) the type of round. Sweet huh?

Police cams to add gunshot detectors
April 7, 2004
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

Big Brother isn't just watching the bad guys in Chicago. By late summer, he'll be listening as well -- for the sound of gunshots.

Gunshot detection technology -- capable of "triangulating within 20 feet" the location of a shooting -- is being added to 30 surveillance cameras already in place on high-crime corners and to 50 new cameras expected to be installed by late summer at undisclosed locations.

Instead of televising only to a portable suitcase monitored by police officers at the scene, the cameras will also be equipped with microwave antennas that beam pictures back to the 911 emergency center and to police headquarters.

Like the initial $750,000 camera experiment, the $2.8 million expansion and upgrade is being paid for with drug forfeiture money. Drug dealers are literally paying for police to breathe down their necks.

If there were enough dirty money to go around, Mayor Daley said he would love to see cameras installed on every street corner in Chicago.

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