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South Africa uses new tech to fight vicious gun violence

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AP Cape Town
Last Updated : Sep 13 2018 | 8:35 PM IST

As gunshots ring out in one of South Africa's most dangerous neighbourhoods, a new technology detects the gun's location and immediately alerts police.

South Africa is the first country outside the United States to implement the "shotspotter" audio technology, which is also being used to fight wildlife poaching on the other end of the country in Kruger National Park.

The technology's use in Cape Town's notoriously violent Cape Flats area has contributed for the first time this year to a conviction in a gang shooting.

Police hope more will follow.

"About 13 per cent of gunshots are reported by the public. Now we respond to every single incident, very rapidly," said City of Cape Town Alderman JP Smith, who instituted the technology in the Manenberg and Hanover Park neighbourhoods in 2016.

"It's accurate to between 2 meters and 10 meters (6 feet to 33 feet) of where the shot was fired."
"When coloured people (South African term for people of mixed race) were forcibly evicted from their areas and dumped in the Cape Flats, people lost all their social ties that used to form an identity."
"Since 1994 we've had high levels of unemployment, poverty, inequality and these dynamics have fed into the high violent crime rate."

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First Published: Sep 13 2018 | 8:35 PM IST

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