Report: Nan Whaley's City of Dayton pays $615,000+, shutters ShotSpotter system after 4 years

WKEF (ABC Dayton) is reporting that the City of Dayton has decided to shut down the city's pricey ShotSpotter system after just four years, admitting the expensive system has led to an average of just 18.5 arrests per year despite having spent over $615,000.

From the article:

In 2023, Dayton’s ShotSpotter system will go dark. It went live in 2019 despite opposition from some.

...

It has led to arrests in 74 incidents.

Commissioner Darryl Fairchild told Mamie that the data doesn’t justify claims that the technology has helped solve crimes.

What the article does not mention is that many people have been telling Fairchild's boss, Democrat gubernatorial candidate Mayor Nan Whaley, that this was a waste of taxpayer money, since befoe the program began. But Whaley has proven time and again that she cares more about appearing willing to "do something" rather than she does about actual results. That's why, in 2020, despite having only generated 27 arrests after the first $205,000 was sent, she claimed that the system worth it because "dispatching officers to areas where there is gunfire helps combat dangerous criminal activities and shows residents the city and police care about improving public safety in their neighborhoods." She also claimed that "the technology 10 years ago wasn't very effective but had seen improvement in the last three years."

And yet, just two years later, Mayor Whaley's Dayton is shuttering the program, having now spent more than $615,000 total (not to mention the time and money spent to send officers on calls which only led to arrests 2% of the time). Whaley's system has produced just 74 arrests, adding up to a cost of $8,310 per arrest. (Numbers of how many of that 74 who were actually convicted were not provided in the article.)

For its part, WKEF does not appear to have bothered to ask Whaley, who is currently running a weak campaign to become governor of Ohio, about this abject waste of time and taxpayer money.

Chad D. Baus served as Buckeye Firearms Association Secretary from 2013-2019, and continues to serve on the Board of Directors. He is co-founder of BFA-PAC, and served as its Vice Chairman for 15 years. He is the editor of BuckeyeFirearms.org, which received the Outdoor Writers of Ohio 2013 Supporting Member Award for Best Website, and is also an NRA-certified firearms instructor.