TO: Mayor and Members of City Council
THRU: Dr. Douglas J. Hewett, ICMA-CM, City Manager
FROM: Dr. Andrew Mansell, Senior Assistant to the City Manager
DATE: June 22, 2026
RE:Title
Authorize the City Manager to Sign the SoundThinking Contract RenewalTitle
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COUNCIL DISTRICT(S):
Council District(s)
All
b
Relationship To Strategic Plan:
GOAL I: The City of Fayetteville will be a safe and secure community
Executive Summary:
Staff requests City Manager authorization to execute a one-year renewal of the City’s contract with SoundThinking for its acoustic gunshot detection platform (ShotSpotter). The contract expires September 27, 2026, with a 30-day notice of renewal or non-renewal due by August 26, 2026. City Council received the Project Team’s administrative report on May 11, 2026, which presented the full findings of the Wilson Center’s independent evaluation alongside the Project Team’s contextual analysis and operational enhancements. Funding for the renewal year is included in the adopted FY2027 budget. SoundThinking has offered two renewal options at $225,000 per year: a one-year term or a three-year term billed annually. Staff recommends the three-year option, which locks in the current rate and allows the enhanced data collection framework to develop over a more meaningful analysis period.
Background:
The City of Fayetteville entered into a contract with SoundThinking - then operating under the ShotSpotter brand - in 2022, with coverage commencing September 26, 2023, across three zones in the Campbellton, Central, and Cross Creek districts. These zones were selected due to their disproportionately high rates of gun violence relative to their geographic size: between January 2019 and March 2025, the three zones accounted for approximately 11.9 percent of citywide gunshot-related incidents despite covering only 3 percent of the City’s land area.
At City Council’s direction, a cross-functional Project Team - comprising the Office of Strategic Performance and Analytics, Special Projects, the Office of Community Safety, and the Fayetteville Police Department - conducted a structured evaluation of the Wilson Center’s independent 18-month study of the program. The Project Team’s findings, contextual analysis, and data infrastructure enhancements were delivered to Council in the administrative report of May 11, 2026.
Issues/Analysis:
Contract and Notice Deadline. The current SoundThinking contract expires September 27, 2026. Written notice of renewal or non-renewal is required by August 26, 2026. Authorization is needed now to allow staff adequate lead time to execute renewal documents.
Council Briefing Complete. City Council received the Project Team’s full administrative report on May 11, 2026. That report addressed Council’s core directive: to assess ShotSpotter’s measurable impact when deployed without a corresponding 911 call. Key findings included:
• ShotSpotter substantially increased gunshot-related notifications within the coverage zones. During the evaluation period, ShotSpotter alerts outnumbered resident-initiated 911 calls within those zones by a ratio of approximately 4.1 to 1.
• Dispatch times for ShotSpotter alerts were more than two minutes faster than for 911-only calls, with officers arriving on scene approximately two minutes sooner as well.
• As of April 2026, FPD’s public-facing ShotSpotter Dashboard reports an 86 percent gunshot detection and location performance rate.
• On every productivity measure - shell casing recovery, witness location, victim identification, and arrest rates - ShotSpotter alerts paired with a 911 call substantially outperformed ShotSpotter-only alerts. The Wilson Center found no evidence that ShotSpotter-only alerts significantly improve police productivity without a corroborating 911 call.
• A direct comparison between ShotSpotter-only alerts and standalone 911 calls for gunfire was not possible within the current data environment; no equivalent outcome documentation exists for 911-only gunshot responses.
Data Infrastructure Enhancements. Effective January 4, 2026, SoundThinking and FPD implemented two new Ground Truth interface fields - “Alert Responded” and “Alert Pending” - directly addressing the data gaps identified in the Wilson Center study. Corresponding updates were made to FPD’s internal Ground Truth Workbook and the public-facing ShotSpotter Dashboard.
Budget Impact:
Funding for the one-year renewal is included in the adopted FY2027 budget. No additional appropriation is required.
Options:
• Authorize the three-year contract renewal with SoundThinking.
• Authorize the one-year contract renewal with SoundThinking
• Decline renewal and direct staff to issue non-renewal notice by August 26, 2026.
• Request additional briefing prior to acting.
Recommended Action::Recommended Action
Staff recommends the City Manager authorize execution of the three-year renewal of the SoundThinking contract. Council has received the full Project Team evaluation. Funding is in place. The August 26, 2026, notice deadline requires timely action to ensure no lapse in service.
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Attachments:
Administrative Report- Wilson Center Evaluation of Shotspotter
Shotspotter 1-year contract renewal quote
Shotspotter 3-year contract renewal quote