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Today we have a look at technology marketed and sold as a way for police to respond faster to shootings — and how effective it is. But first: Clover Food Labs, the fast-casual breakfast and lunch joint with locations across Boston and Cambridge, is going out of business and closing all its locations at the end of business today. The company’s 170 workers will lose their jobs. CEO Julia Wrin Piper said inflation has been a problem at both ends: prices for the company’s food suppliers are rising and customers don’t have as much disposable income to spend on their pita sandwiches and bowls.
“Across the board, our ingredients cost 30-50% more today than they did just two years ago. Our farmers are experiencing the same pressures we are,” Wrin Piper said. Customer Melissa Friebe said the news was sad. “They have really good food, everyone loves it and, like, everyone wants it,” Friebe said. “But they just can’t make ends meet and make it sustainable for them.” Clover is asking customers to share their memories of eating there here. Read GBH’s Esteban Bustillos’ report on conversations with Clover customers about the closing.
Four Things to Know
1. Gov. Maura Healey’s proposal to give cities and towns more power to raise local taxes on things like cars, meals and hotels has reached a dead end in the State Legislature for the second session in a row. The proposal came as the Massachusetts Municipal Association, an advocacy group that represents city and town governments, said local officials are in a financial crisis.
That’s still true, said Adam Chapdelaine, the association’s executive director. “That being said, we also understand this is a time where affordability for residents is front and center,” he said. “And for the Legislature, not to speak for them, but I can imagine their perspective of having a lot of concerns about how anything that addresses — or seems to impact — affordability might impact residents.”
2. The most noteworthy thing about Pope Leo’s statement against chattel slavery, according to Donna Doucette, a trustee with the Boston-based Voice of the Faithful, was his specific apology for the Catholic Church’s role.
“I see, personally, great improvement and a willingness to stand up, point out where the church as an institution has been in error and to apologize for those times,” she said. “It is important as a step for the institutional church to begin its effort to regain, especially in the United States, its ability to speak to moral issues coherently.” GBH’s Trajan Warren spoke with more local Catholics about the Pope’s apology here.
3. School bus drivers and monitors for Marlborough Public Schools went on strike yesterday, walking off the job and saying they want more affordable health care coverage. The school district brought in other drivers to replace them. “Right now, they don’t have much of an offer for health insurance,” said Jim Marks, a business agent for Teamsters Local 170. “All these drivers and monitors worry about if they have to take their family to the doctor, whether they’re going to be facing a $2,000, $3,000, $4,000, $5,000 bill at the end of that.”
Their employer, a company called NRT Bus based in North Reading, said they reached a tentative agreement over the weekend. “We are deeply disappointed in their decision, which unfairly creates uncertainty for our students, families and the school district,” said Scott Sheridan, senior vice president of operations for NRT Bus.
4. A local to watch on the World Cup soccer pitch in Foxborough: Frantzdy Pierrot, who grew up in Massachusetts and is playing for the Haitian national team. This week he visited the State House, where Gov. Maura Healey declared Tuesday Frantzdy Pierrot Day.
Pierrot said he remembers playing soccer barefoot as a kid in Haiti before his family moved to Massachusetts. “Haiti has always had potential but not enough opportunities. We cannot wait another 52 years to reach the world stage again,” he said. “The time is now to invest in our people, our football and the future of the next generation.”
Police support ShotSpotter after Cambridge City Council votes to end gunfire detection
Last week the Cambridge City Council voted to stop using ShotSpotter within 90 days, with five councilors in favor of ending the contract, two against and two abstaining. Here’s what you need to know about the vote, per reporting from GBH’s Chris Burrell.
What is ShotSpotter? It’s marketed as gunshot detection technology, and Cambridge has been using it since 2014. The city places microphones around intersections and streets, which record live sound. When the company’s software detects a sound it classifies as a gunshot, it alerts local police. Cities usually do not make the locations of their microphones public.
Does it work? The Cambridge Police Department presented data last month that shows ShotSpotter detected 11 shootings in the last 11 years that were not otherwise reported to 911. The ACLU of Massachusetts studied the technology’s use in Boston and found that when ShotSpotter alerted the Boston Police Department, officers found evidence of gunshots in 31% of cases. In about 16% of cases, the gunshot-like noise came from fireworks, a car backfiring or construction. And in slightly more than half of cases — 53% — officers could not figure out the source of the noise recorded by ShotSpotter recorded.
A spokesperson for the company behind ShotSpotter, SoundThinking, said “ShotSpotter is proven, unbiased technology that detects and alerts police to gunfire, enabling faster response, evidence collection and lifesaving medical aid all the while preserving privacy. We remain committed to working with communities, like Cambridge, that share our belief that every resident deserves those protections against gun violence.”
How much does it cost the city of Cambridge? Technically nothing. The annual subscription cost, $50,000, is covered by a federal grant from the Urban Area Security Initiative.
What do residents think of this? Dozens of people came to a community meeting and said they’d like the city to stop using ShotSpotter. Some said they worried about false calls drawing additional police attention to neighborhoods that have more people of color, and others said they worried that audio from the microphones would be used for other purposes. “We know that it misses many of the actual gunshots, and it’s dangerously inaccurate,” Councilor Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler said. “It sends police into communities of color where there are no gunshots, where there are firecrackers or other loud noises.”
What do local police officers think? The union representing Cambridge police officers has said they’d like to keep the city’s contract with ShotSpotter. “This decision threatens to make Cambridge less safe by slowing emergency response to gunfire,” the union wrote in an emailed statement to Burrell. “ShotSpotter has been part of Cambridge’s public safety infrastructure since 2014. Removing it now sets the city back more than a decade by eliminating a tool that alerts police to likely gunfire within seconds — including incidents when no 911 call is made.”
You can read Burrell’s full story here.
Dig deeper:
-13 Mass. municipalities and 1 university use ShotSpotter. Critics wonder: Is it worth it?
-ShotSpotter aims to detect gunshots instantly. The ACLU says it’s ineffective.
-Gunshot detection company contests ACLU’s claims about the technology
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