The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled last week that the City of Detroit illegally approved a 2022 contract to expand its use of the ShotSpotter gunshot-detection technology.
The court said the city failed to comply with its own 2021 surveillance ordinance, which requires specific community input procedures outlining how the technology works.
“Given the inherent invasiveness of surveillance technology, the City adopted specific procedural requirements that must be met when procuring such technology. These requirements were not met,” Judge Kristina Robinson Garrett and Judge Brock Swartzle wrote in the opinion. “With surveillance and similar technology ever encroaching into every recess of modern life, procedural safeguards cannot be ignored or downplayed by government actors as mere technicalities.”…