Worcester Chief Sought ShotSpotter Job After Bringing Tech To City: Filing

WORCESTER, MA — Worcester Interim Police Chief Paul Saucier pursued a job last year at SoundThinking — the maker of the controversial gunshot detection tool ShotSpotter — after years of being an advocate for the company's technology inside the police department, city documents show.

Saucier filed a conflict-of-interest statement at the end of July, about a month before he was promoted to interim chief from deputy chief following the sudden retirement of former chief Steven Sargent.

“I have met with the company ShotSpotter, now renamed SoundThinking, to purchase gunshot detection technology and patrol resource software within the last two years and I may explore employment opportunities involving this company,” Saucier said in the July 26 disclosure.

In August 2023, Saucier interviewed for a job as a SoundThinking customer success director, a sales and support role that involves "driving revenue growth through upsells and cross-sells with current customers," according to a job description.

Sargent's retirement and the opportunity to become interim chief ended his efforts, he said.

"I filed a disclosure of conflict-of-interest form to be totally transparent with the city as I was possibly contemplating retiring, and I wanted to explore what options would be available to me in the future within private sector public safety technology companies," Saucier said via email. "Upon being selected [interim chief] I immediately contacted the person whom I had the phone interview with and told her I am withdrawing my application and I never heard back from her."

Saucier has led the department's efforts in adopting new technology in recent years. He managed the creation of the department's "real-time crime center," a network of surveillance cameras across the city that police can use for investigations and during live incidents. He was also the public face of the department's recent acquisition of drones.

But bringing ShotSpotter to Worcester was perhaps Saucier's main contribution to the department's use of new technology. He became the department's "subject matter expert" on ShotSpotter and the AI-driven tool ResourceRouter (previously called ShotSpotter Connect), he said.

"I have always had an interest in the field of public safety technology, and I would research different programs other departments were doing in an effort to move the Worcester Police Department forward, as we were behind most police departments when it came to technology," he said.

Worcester started using ShotSpotter in 2014, beginning a relationship that over the years has meant millions in revenue for SoundThinking.

Worcester paid an estimated $860,000 over the first three years of the ShotSpotter contract, but subsidized the cost by using tapping into a legal settlement. The city took over full payments beginning in July 2016. According to the city's fiscal year 2025 budget, Worcester will pay about $573,000 for ShotSpotter and ResourceRouter in the upcoming fiscal year.

As highlighted in the disclosure form, Saucier last worked to expand the department's use of SoundThinking technology in 2020 and 2021. At the time, the department wanted to expand the ShotSpotter coverage area up Lincoln Street and into Burncoat. The company offered Worcester an $80,000 discount on that expansion if the city also signed up for ResourceRouter.

Saucier began discussions on the expansion with a SoundThinking sales executive in October 2020, internal emails show, and communicated directly with Worcester Chief Financial Officer Timothy McGourthy about the expansion. He pushed to sign a contract before the end of 2020 — and before city council could review the deal in public. ResourceRouter uses artificial intelligence to direct police patrols based on changes in crime data.

"The rep from ShotSpotter told me if we can get a signed contract amendment in 2020 we can push payment terms into next year," Saucier wrote in a Dec. 29, 2020, email to McGourthy.

After a series of council meetings, the city signed a $1.034 million, three-year contract to acquire ResourceRouter and expand ShotSpotter. That contract expired in April 2023, but Saucier said this week the city has a new contract through 2026.

Saucier has been a fierce advocate in Worcester for SoundThinking's products. At a June 4 city council budget hearing, he used the ShotSpotter phone app to play sounds of gunfire recorded in Worcester to emphasize the ongoing need for the software.

His advocacy for ShotSpotter contrasts with recent criticism of the technology, with leaders in cities from San Antonio to Fall River and New Orleans rejecting it, often citing cost and the human resources it consumes. In an analysis of Boston's use of ShotSpotter, the ACLU of Massachusetts found that about 70 percent of gunfire alerts led to dead ends for police.

"The records add more evidence to support what researchers and government investigators have found in other cities: ShotSpotter is unreliable, ineffective, and a danger to civil rights and civil liberties," the ACLU of Massachusetts said in its report.

At the June 4 council meeting, Saucier said Worcester police tracked over 500 ShotSpotter alerts in 2023, with about 70 of those leading to confirmed gunfire incidents.

ShotSpotter critics also say it focuses police resources in neighborhoods dominated by people of color. More than half of Worcester's ShotSpotter sensors are in census tracts with poverty rates above the Worcester average of 19.3 percent. More than one-third are in majority Hispanic areas.
The Worcester group Black Families Together this week filed a city council petition seeking the cancelation of the city's SoundThinking contracts, asking officials to reroute the money to youth programs instead.

Saucier has said he's talked to Worcester neighborhood leaders who like ShotSpotter. One of the main benefits, he says, is providing residents a sense of security by ensuring that police appear after gunshots ring out. Of the 70 shooting incidents detected by ShotSpotter in 2023, 41 were not reported through 911, Saucier has said. Saucier has also said the technology can help police find wounded people faster, potentially saving lives.

Saucier said in his conflict filing that there's a "low risk of undue favoritism" toward SoundThinking because at the time he was a deputy chief and not empowered to make purchasing decisions. Now as interim chief, Saucier is in charge of the police department budget. He said he would consult with the city solicitor on any future contracts, and recuse himself if necessary.

City Manager Eric Batista named Saucier interim chief on Sept. 1, the same day Sargent retired. The city is in the process of securing permission from the state Legislature to remove the chief and deputy chief positions from civil service, and won't name a permanent chief until after the process finishes.

Batista said he trusts Saucier's judgement acquiring technology with other layers of oversight inside City Hall.

"[Saucier] filed conflict of interest disclosures in compliance with state and municipal protocol," Batista said Friday. "And given his 30-plus years of experience researching and working with public safety technology, I do not have any concerns of his judgement to suggest proper technological tools to assist with public safety in the city. Ultimately, any contract is signed off on by the administration and city council."