The Tacoma City Council held a study session on March 4, 2025, to discuss the deployment of ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology in the Hosmer corridor, the 2025 federal legislative agenda, a proposed ordinance for expenditure targets and reporting for Proposition 1 transportation revenue, and a resolution supporting good jobs. The meeting began with an executive session and included extensive deliberation and questions from all councilmembers. No formal votes were taken during the study session; the legislative agenda and ordinance were to be voted on at the evening regular meeting.
I'd like to call to order the City Council study session of March Fourth, twenty twenty-five. Clerk, will you please call the role? Councilmember Bushnell. Deputy Mayor Daniels. Councilmember Diaz. Councilmember Heinz. Council Member Rumba. Councilmember Sidalgay. Councilmember Scott. Councilmember Walker. Mayor Woodards. Here. Mayor and Councilmember's study session material sent you at eleven. Thank you very much. Um, we're going to change the order of some items today. We're going to begin with an executive session. So the presentations will be held until after the executive session concludes. So I will entertain a moment uh motion to convene to an executive session pursuant to RCW forty two dot three zero. All those in favor signify by saying I. All those opposed. The motion is declared adopted. We will go into recess and we'll be back in ten minutes. I'd like to call back to order the study session of March fourth. All right. Our first agenda item is shot spotter. And I'd like to call on Tacoma Police Department Assistant Chief Christopher Carl for introductions and to begin the presentations. Technology is great when it works. Rather than have people wait on online, I'm just going to call a quick five minute recess, and we'll we'll get we'll get this up and working, and then we'll be right back. We stand in recess for five minutes. I'd like to call back to order the City Council study session of March Fourth, and we now are techno we have our technology in order now. So I'm going to turn it back over to Chris Carl, who's going to uh introduce everybody at the table and begin the presentation. Thank you, Miss Mayor. I'd like to introduce Ralph Clark, the CEO of Shot Spotter. Al Lures to his left and Assistant Chief Crystal Haskins on the far end down there. In addition, I would like to announce Dr. Huff is online from the University of Cincinnati, who will be the independent academic reviewer of the technology grant and the data. Well, in essence, eighty percent of gunfire incidents go unreported. As part of that, um we have Shaw Spar because it saves lives. Both the recover lift uh fingerprint technology and the Faroe 3D scanner are currently being used by the Tacoma Police Department. In regards to the grant itself, it's uh a BGA grant under the SMART policing initiative. The Tacoma Police Department was one of 10 police departments in the United States that was issued this grant money. It is technology and evidence-based. What that means is that the grant tracks the gunfire incidents specifically in regard and we use the other two parts of that technology grant, the recover lift technology to process shell casings and the Faro 3D scanner to process crime scenes. To date, we've utilized the recovery lift technology in over 600 shell casings, and the Faroe 3D scanner we've used over uh 14 times in regards to homicide investigations and an officer-involved shooting again. What I talked about is the BGA grant is technology only. The shot spotter will give us the location. The Faro 3D scanner allows us to document that crime scene, and the recover lift technology allows us to process those shell casings. The SMART, the SBI, the SMART Policing Initiative is geared towards technology in regards to response, identification, and investigating crimes involving guns. Dr. Huff from the University of Cincinnati will be the independent academic reviewer of the grant.