"If nothing else, ShotSpotter has made it clear how much unreported gunfire takes place on city streets. In many high-crime urban neighborhoods, gunshots are a counterpoint to daily life, “as common as the birds chirping,” as Commander Mikail Ali of the San Francisco Police Department put it. But whether out of apathy, fear or uncertainty, people call the police in only a fraction of cases."
Or maybe, they got sick of calling the cops and not having them come. If the gunshots are that common, it wouldn't be uncommon for the police to ignore the complaints as a high-crime district.
Now they can ignore the automated reports instead of the called-in ones.
There's a potentially huge difference: if these outside company reports exist independently of the official PD story it becomes much easier for a reporter to start asking why the numbers are much higher. If the police are under pressure to get their stats down (i.e. cook the books) there will probably turnout to be a number of real incidents which were described as mistaken reports
Or maybe, they got sick of calling the cops and not having them come. If the gunshots are that common, it wouldn't be uncommon for the police to ignore the complaints as a high-crime district.
Now they can ignore the automated reports instead of the called-in ones.