Urban IoT and AI to reduce illegal gun ownership

Kenyan civilians own more guns than the military and police combined, according Geneva-based small arms survey.

The survey cited over 750,000 guns were owned by Kenyan civilians and only 8,136 were registered hence the continuous rise of unreported gunshot incidents.

“In the US, 80percent of gunshot incidents are never reported to 911. In Chicago, an app, ShotSpotter detects over 90percent of gunfire incidents within a precise location in less than 60 seconds to significantly improve response times,” said Michael Needham, Senior Manager Solutions Architecture at Amazon Web Services during a presentation at the IoT and AI Summit in Nairobi, Kenya.

ShotSpotter has acoustic sensors strategically placed in a coverage area detecting when a gun is fired triangulating a 10 metres radius of the fired shot, connect investigators to the location of shell casings and other forensic evidence while improving police-community relations.

Notifications are sent to dispatch centres and smartphones. These alerts contain a full set of contextual information.

With the rapid increase of gun ownership in Kenya, an app with specifications would reduce not only poaching in the country but also cattle rustling and also the crime rate in urban areas.