WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — City staff are asking West Palm Beach’s City Commission to pay a man $85,000 to settle a lawsuit related to the police department’s response to a “ShotSpotter call” in 2023, according to a draft agenda published on the city’s website.
The lawsuit alleges ShotSpotter, a gunshot detection program where sensors are placed around a city then listen for loud noises and potentially dispatch police officers to the area without a 911 call, sent officers to the wrong address when investigating a potential shots fired investigation. The suit raises questions about the system’s accuracy and training officers receive while responding to ShotSpotter calls.
WATCH BELOW: City may pay $85,000 to settle ShotSpotter police response lawsuit
Bryant Grant, who documents show lives in Wellington, sued the city and police officer Romario Saunders in federal court this September claiming he was falsely imprisoned, unlawfully searched and wrongfully physically injured outside a West Palm Beach neighborhood. He also claims Saunders used excessive force and the city was negligent by not properly training officers on how to respond to ShotSpotter incidents.
According to the incident report WPTV obtained from a public records request, Saunders was sent to the 1300 block of Ninth Court where he found Grant in the middle of the street. Saunders said in the incident report that he believed Grant was the man, who discharged a firearm, because he was the sole person in the roadway and in the exact area where the ShotSpotter sensors detected four rounds. He said he unholstered his weapon and gave various verbal commands. The footage shows some verbal commands were followed while other commands weren’t followed.
According to the incident report, Saunders said he eventually put his gun back into his holster and tried to grab Grant’s right arm to put him into handcuffs. However, the officer’s efforts failed. Saunders said in the incident report said he perceived the man not complying with commands and actively resisting had a gun concealed in his waistband, or somewhere else that wasn’t visible, which resulted in a struggle.
WATCH BELOW: Body cam of officer's struggle with Bryant Grant
Grant’s attorneys said the officer should have never found Grant walking in the street, because ShotSpotter sent the officer to the wrong location.
Dr. Robert Maher, who is a professor at Montana State University in electrical and computer engineering, said he reviewed all the data and documented related to Grant’s case on behalf of his legal team. He said ShotSpotter’s data should have dispatched an officer to an area west of the canal near Westward Elementary School, but instead Saunders was dispatched to an address on the eastern side of the canal, where he happened to run into Grant.
“It is my opinion to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty in the field of forensic audio analysis that the street address provided by ShotSpotter was not an accurate indication of where ShotSpotter’s multilateration calculation placed the likely sound location,” wrote Maher.
The city of West Palm Beach and the West Palm Beach Police Department said it couldn’t comment on the lawsuit or potential settlement, because of pending litigation. Soundthinking, the company who owns ShotSpotter, didn’t respond to WPTV’s request for comment about this story. WPTV was unable to get in contact with Saunders, but our news team did obtain his deposition in relation to the case earlier this year.
