Pontiac — A vote to renew a gunshot detection software program was postponed Tuesday amid City Council concerns the public wasn’t familiar enough with the program.
The council unanimously moved to postpone a decision to continue its partnership with Flock Safety for its Raven Gunshot Detection program until their June 16 meeting. The software was used for six months since October 2025 as a pilot program at no cost to the city or county and must be renewed at $36,000, according to the proposed contract.
Raven has remained in effect beyond the pilot program because the Sheriff’s Office has told the company they are negotiating with the council, according to sheriff’s Lt. Eric Tremonti.
Members of the Sheriff’s Office argued in favor of the program.
“We’re not comfortable taking that vote, seeing that there has been no community engagement,” said council President Adrian Austin, who asked the Sheriff’s Office to give them more notice in the future so they can speak to the public.
The council and the Sheriff’s Office will hold a community meeting June 4 to discuss Raven, said Austin. The program will not lapse in te meantime, said Tremonti.
Raven covers three quarter-mile sections in the Newman Lane, Spring Lake and North Hill Farms apartment complex areas. The complexes “have experienced elevated levels of gun-related incidents,” according to a memo from the deputy mayor to the council.
The May 8 Raven analytics report shows the technology generated 269 gunshot-related alerts and 212 fireworks alerts. The data was used in two homicide cases, four attempted murder cases and three felon in possession of a firearm cases, the memo said.
“It’s like a lead,” Tremonti told the council. “It’s like if someone called 911 and said, ‘Hey, I think I heard gunshots.'”
Tremonti said Raven has lowered response times because deputies don’t have to wait for someone to call them about potential gunfire. Sheriff’s Maj. Andre Ewing said a deputy could take up to 15 minutes to respond to gunshots if calls were going through 911 dispatch.
“A lot of people don’t even call,” said Ewing, who said Raven can “save lives.”
But some Tuesday night had concerns about the program. Former mayoral candidate Kermit Williams said Pontiac and Detroit use gunshot detection software.
“All municipalities should be using it, not just the ones that have a high density of African Americans,” said Williams. “So the three places (in Pontiac) that they put these are high-crime crime areas, but they’re also heavily African American. And so are you going to expand the program to all citizens?
“If this is the best thing since sliced bread, people from all the sheriff’s departments should be using it, and not just the city of Pontiac.”
Taya Lyons, a TikTok influencer from Waterford Township who has opposed Flock technology at the county level, again expressed concern about the company.
“How local law enforcement uses the information is the least of our concerns,” said Lyons. “It is one company having perpetual rights to data.”
Tremonti said the Sheriff’s Office purges the data after 30 days, a process overseen by internal policy and Michigan State Police, he said. But Tremonti said it’s hard for him to speak about where the data goes after it’s purged from the Sheriff’s Office because “I’m not a business owner, I don’t own the intellectual property, the devices, anything like that.”
“If someone is concerned about that and they can support that allegation, they should contact an investigative body to look into that,” said Tremonti.
Councilman Chris Jackson said he would like to see language outlining what Flock will do with the data.
Jackson said Pontiac has had Raven “or related technology” for five years. He said he hasn’t heard any reports of privacy violations in the city.
Jackson said the Sheriff’s Office should discuss the technology with the public.
“There’s just a healthy skepticism among people in Pontiac because trusting hasn’t always worked out so great for us over time,” said Jackson.
mbryan@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Pontiac postpones decision on gunshot detection software
Reporting by Max Bryan, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
