A police oversight group has formally recommended Portland adopt a technology known as "ShotSpotter" to help tackle gun violence, but the technology has been met with some skepticism.

ShotSpotter uses artificial intelligence with data collected from hidden microphones to determine the location of gunshots and inform the police department.

Dan Hon, a Portland-based strategy consultant in government and civic technology, said the technology still has to make some leaps to determine if the sound it hears is a gunshot.

"The thing about technology that we really need to understand is that it's not magical, it's not necessarily more reliable," Hon asserted. "It's not necessarily going to 100%, always classify sound in exactly the right way."

A study last year from Chicago, where ShotSpotter has been implemented, found it led to more than 40,000 dead-end police deployments in less than two years.

A ShotSpotter spokesperson says the report draws erroneous conclusions from its interpretation of police reports.

The Focus Intervention Taskforce Community Oversight Group submitted its recommendation to Mayor Ted Wheeler and the city council on Monday. Hon argued if the technology is adopted, open data is key to ensure accountability.

Je Amaechi, digital organizer in Portland for Freedom to Thrive, pointed out the technology is still experimental, and has even faced a challenge to its constitutionality as sole evidence in an Ohio case.

One of the biggest criticisms is it could lead to more policing in communities of color. Amaechi thinks the resources to bring ShotSpotter to Portland should be used instead to improve lives in communities of color.

"They instead use it to manipulate people into manufacturing consent for this surveillance system that puts more police into their neighborhoods," Amaechi contended. "And we've seen already that more police in neighborhoods does not make us safer. It makes us, actually, more at risk of police violence."

A ShotSpotter spokesperson said communities affected by gun violence "deserve a rapid police response, which gunshot detection enables regardless of race or geographic location." At a community meeting last week, ShotSpotter stressed the technology would only be used to detect gunshots.

Chris Bushick, executive director of PDX Privacy, believes the microphones could be used for other purposes.

"I really want to believe them, but I've been disappointed many times by tech companies that have broken their promises," Bushick stressed. "And there have been at least two criminal trials where prosecutors have tried to introduce into evidence voice recordings that were obtained from gunshot detection systems."

ShotSpotter says sensors are only designed to record loud sounds and says the risk of recording voices is extremely limited.

More than 120 cities are contracted with ShotSpotter, according to the company's website.

The public has until February 13th to weigh in on new rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce methane pollution at oil and gas facilities.

Emma Galofre Garcia, a doctoral student at C.U. Boulder's environmental studies program, said the EPA has an opportunity to build on successful efforts led by states including Colorado to rein in methane emissions, a dangerous air pollutant.

"It's a precursor to ozone and smog, causing lung damage, heart damage, greater susceptibility to respiratory infections. It causes and worsens lung disease such as asthma and bronchitis," Galofre Garcia said.

Some critics of proposals to limit methane pollution, including those passed in Colorado that require oil and gas operators to find and fix leaks and reduce flaring, have argued that the cost of implementation can be prohibitive. Proponents argue that companies benefit by capturing emissions and bringing more gas to market.

Some communities face greater risks than others. Latinos are twice as likely to go to the emergency room for asthma, and Latino children are twice as likely to die from asthma as white children.

Galofre Garcia said Latinos historically have had no other option but to live in the shadows of refineries and other sources of air pollution, but the goal should be to make all neighborhoods safe for families.

"Communities of color, Latinos have only had access to housing that have been red-lined and that are in areas that are more polluted," Galofre Garcia said. "But it's also that we don't want places like that to exist."

She added industrial methane emissions targeted in the EPA's new rules also come with toxins linked to cancer, damage to immune systems and developmental problems in children.

"Outdoor workers, who are disproportionately Latino, and children, who spend a lot of time outdoors, are at a higher risk of health problems caused by smog - since they spend more time outdoors in polluted air," Galofre Garcia said.

The five largest cities in Texas are spending far more money on criminal justice than on community services, according to a new study.

The Social Movement Support Lab data showed money spent on police departments, court systems, and corrections departments in Texas' five largest cities was much higher than the amounts spent on such services as affordable housing, parks and recreation, and mental health programs.

Christopher Rivera, criminal injustice outreach coordinator for the Texas Civil Rights Project, said the state has one of the world's highest incarceration rates, even as people need community services, like housing, more than ever.

"Especially now, since there's so many people facing eviction," Rivera pointed out. "I think that's why people are so appalled that we notice that there's so much money being taken away from actually keeping communities safe, and put into systems that criminalize us and penalize everyday people."

The study found Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Austin all spend more on police than community supports, and it is especially true for Fort Worth, which is spending six times more; about $1,300 per household on law enforcement, compared to $200 per household for community care. Many police departments cite increased crime during the pandemic as a reason they need more money.

In 2022, Houston spent $1 billion on what the study refers to as "mass criminalization," compared with just $213 million on community care.

Rivera, who monitors budgets in the Houston area, noted while crime is often reduced when people have access to affordable housing, Texas cities are not responding.

"Texas has always had a mass incarceration problem," Rivera pointed out. "I just know locally, the last 10 years we see that police budgets have gone up, but yet services for like housing, public libraries or even health care have gone down."

In 2021, as Austin appeared poised to reduce some police spending, the Texas Legislature passed a law effectively barring cities from doing so. The city sent more than $130 million back to the police department.

Colorado's Spanish-speaking communities can now access comprehensive pricing information for health-care services through a new Spanish portal in the Shop For Care tool developed by the Center for Improving Value in Health Care.

Cari Frank, vice president for communications for Center for Improving Value in Health Care, said the tool is a game-changer, and has saved consumers thousands of dollars in medical bills, because it allows anyone to see the true costs of medical procedures across all of the state's hospitals and other care facilities.

"This tool actually enables people who maybe have high copays to be able to say, 'OK, if I need a colonoscopy, or I'm having a baby, I can actually use this tool to figure out where I can get the best quality of care at the lowest price,'" she said.

Creating a tool that Spanish-speaking Coloradans could access has been a top priority for the center. Frank said it works to improve health equity. More than half of Colorado Latinos speak Spanish and it is the sole language spoken by one in ten Coloradans, according to the Latino Leadership Institute. The Spanish and English versions can be accessed at the Center's website: 'civhc.org.'

Shop For Care also has been used by health-care providers to see how their prices compare, and to help patients without health insurance find lower-priced options. Frank said some medical procedures can cost as much as $60,000 more at one facility versus another. When consumers are better informed about their choices, she said they can be a significant driver in lowering health-care costs.

"And if a consumer makes a choice to go to the lower-cost facility that has just as great quality, then we're actually lowering the overall cost of health care, which reduces premiums for all of us," she said.

Price is not the only important factor to consider when choosing a health-care facility, so the tool enables consumers to compare health-care quality and patient experience at many facilities. In addition to the Spanish addition, Shop For Care has been improved to make the tool more mobile friendly, and can now be accessed using multiple devices.