16-04-2025
Gunshot detection system paying dividends for Tupelo police
TUPELO – Instead of worrying about the long arm of the law, Tupelo criminals now have to consider its long ear.
For the last two years, the Tupelo Police Department has been using a system that can not only detect gunshots but can also pinpoint their location. And just how accurate is the FireFly system? Extremely accurate.
Derek Schulte, the FireFly program manager for Tupelo-based Hyperion, said the system is designed to both detect and geolocate gunshots. It will also determine if a noise was, in fact, a gunshot.
Schulte said if the system rates a location with high confidence, you should be able to find spent shells casings within a 15-foot radius.
Police say it is usually more accurate than that.
'After we get a notification, you can go out to the point on the map and look around where you're standing and find shell casings,' said Capt. Doug Mansell, TPD public information officer.
The system Tupelo uses is based on a military version of FireFly that can detect small-arms fire, rocket/mortar fire and unmanned aircraft systems (military drones). The law enforcement version of FireFly utilizes a series of sensors to detect the signature sound of a gunshot and record it.
'(The sound) needs to be heard by a minimum of three sensors to be able to geolocate,' Schulte said. 'Then, it will try to determine if it thinks the sound is gunfire. The whole process only takes five to 10 seconds.'
That allows officers to be dispatched much quicker than if they had to wait on witnesses to call 911.
The system assigns each recording with a confidence level, which helps determine if it was actually gunfire and not an audibly similar sound like a car backfiring. A human ear listens to every recording before officers are dispatched to a location. The loud noise might be a garbage truck dropping a dumpster, or a roofing crew using a nail gun being put to a roof on a nearby house. By listing some sounds as not gunfire, the system can fine-tune its algorithms to improve accuracy.
TPD is using FireFly as another tool to help solve crime. It is used routinely in investigations into shooting incidents within the city limits. That includes the late January arrest of a man who had a Glock pistol which had been converted to fully automatic fire. FireFly recorded the sound of the man firing dozens of rounds and led police to his location in southeast Tupelo.
'I wish we had this when I was an investigator,' said Sgt. Kevin Parker, TPD public information officer. 'You can play it in court and confirm what happened.'
Mansell said FireFly adds another layer of evidence to an investigation. Since it provides a timestamp of when a shooting occurred, it can also be used to eliminate suspects in conjunction with the department's blue light cameras and private surveillance videos.
'If video captures someone on the other side of town at the time the shots were fired, then we can eliminate them and move on with the investigation,' Parker said.
FireFly is actually marketed to the police departments of cities much larger than Tupelo. Phoenix, Arizona, is the biggest customer, with more than 300 sensors. Dallas, Texas, is a new customer and Chicago, Illinois, is considering the system.
The high cost of the FireFly system effectively eliminates Tupelo from the regular customer base. Tupelo benefits from the fact that Hyperion is a hometown company and serves as a test bed.
The setup is a win-win for both the city and the industry. Since Hyperion actually owns all the sensors in Tupelo, they are free to make changes and install upgrades. They can test new setups in real time and real-life situations. And the city benefits from pricey crime fighting tools without putting an extra burden on the taxpayers.
'Colorado Springs, Colorado was our previous test bed, but if there was a problem, it was just too far away,' Schulte said. 'We wanted a test bed location that was close enough that we could try new things. Tupelo let us set up.'
