The Little Rock Board of Directors voted Tuesday evening to renew the contract for a controversial gunshot detection service used by the Little Rock Police Department.

The city board voted to renew the contract with SoundThinking Inc., formerly known as ShotSpotter, Inc., for a cost of $149,500 through Dec. 18. This is the fifth contract agreement between the city of Little Rock and SoundThinking Inc.

At-Large City Director Antwan Phillips, who has expressed his concerns numerous times in the past over this technology, was the only board member to vote against it.

ShotSpotter sensors detect loud noises, have their review center evaluate the noise and alert the local police. The process is completed in under a minute and is supposed to address the concern of people not reporting gun crime, whether for fear of retaliation or another reason.

Rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union are critical of the technology, and argue that it is disproportionately used in communities of color, leads to surveillance concerns and causes further distrust between the police and local communities.

Last year, Mayor Frank Scott Jr. halted public comment at a hectic city board meeting regarding renewing the contract after protestors began chanting in the council chambers.

Dozens of gunshot detection sensors have been deployed in a 2-square-mile area south of Interstate 630, from roughly Woodrow Street to Fair Park Boulevard. 

Little Rock first entered into the contract with ShotSpotter in 2018, paying for it with a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. When the city board renewed the contract in Jan. 2024, funding came from the American Rescue Plan Act, the massive federal spending package sent to states to help them economically recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Money for the latest renewal comes from taxpayer funds, as Little Rock started using city funds to pay for the technology when board members renewed the ShotSpotter contract last March for $188,000.

At the board meeting, Phillips said he doesn’t believe ShotSpotter is an effective tool. As he did before last year’s contract renewal, he read the 2018 agreement between Little Rock and ShotSpotter, which states explicitly that the technology would not necessarily prevent crime or result in finding or convicting an alleged criminal.

“The heart of that is that the contract that we’re about to renew — this company is telling us that they do not do what we think it does,” Phillips said.

Phillips added that Little Rock would not be the first city to do away with ShotSpotter technology. In Feb. 2025, the city board voted to cancel its contract with ShotSpotter but confusingly went on to reverse the decision. In March 2025, city directors voted to cancel the previous vote that would have ended LRPD’s use of ShotSpotter, and reapproved the city’s contract the following month.

Chicago ended its contract with ShotSpotter in 2024 thanks to the work of grassroots activists who organized against the technology after a ShotSpotter alert resulted in a police officer shooting and killing a 13-year-old boy. Phillips also referred to Portland, Oregon, and Durham, North Carolina, as examples of cities that have either canceled or decided not go forward with ShotSpotter.

“I do not think this is a good use of resources for our police department,” Phillips said. “I want them to have effective tools that actually do what we think that they’re doing.”

Ward 1 Director Virgil Miller pushed back against Phillips.

Miller said in Ward 1, ShotSpotter sensors are specifically in the Goodwill, Hope, Midtown and Fair Park neighborhoods, and he’s spoken with residents there who support ShotSpotter.

“When ShotSpotter goes off, that means somebody has possibly shot a gun — that isn’t going to stop anybody from creating a crime — ShotSpotter’s not there to stop somebody from shooting a gun, it’s there to alert the police department that a gun may have been discharged. A lot of people don’t like to call 911; they get scared, they don’t want to get involved, but when they hear something that sounds like gunshots, they want to see that the police have responded. If it’s a firecracker, if it’s the back of a car going off, they don’t know, but they feel safer when they see it’s being responded to,” Miller said.

LRPD Chief Heath Helton told city directors on Tuesday that ShotSpotter has been valuable to the LRPD.

“It’s not going to prevent crime, it is a tool,” Helton said. “It is a tool just like that patrol car, it’s a tool like the computer that goes in that car.”

Helton said ShotSpotter is helpful in addressing staffing challenges in the department.

“Without that technology that’s been in place, I would really hate to tell you what we would look like,” Helton said.

According to the LRPD, in 2025, there were 793 total gunfire incidents detected by ShotSpotter, equivalent to 3,284 gunshot rounds. The police discovered 174 shell casings and were able to locate 21 victims, and provide care to 11 people at the scene of an incident. LRPD arrested 13 people as a result of a ShotSpotter activation.

Ward 4 Director Capi Peck said she never questions the LRPD when it says they need an important tool, and threw her full support behind ShotSpotter.

“I disagree that we don’t get to question the police department,” Phillips said. “We question every other department, that doesn’t mean we don’t trust you, it doesn’t mean you don’t do your job well … but that doesn’t mean everything the police department says, we say yes to. We don’t do that with any other department.”

At-Large Director Joan Adcock said she wants to expand ShotSpotter’s coverage in Little Rock.

“I think that kind of depends on the board,” Helton said. “You would love to be able to snap your fingers and go over every square inch of the city, it’s obviously physically not possible, some areas don’t require it, there’s just not enough to justify that kind of expense.”

Helton said the LRPD will continue to evaluate ShotSpotter and he would love to expand it, but the city board would have to decide on that.

“Well, you come next year with another area and I’m one vote for you,” Adcock said.