TIFTON — The Tifton city council is considering the purchase of a new monitoring system to aid in properly identifying gunshot incidents.

City police chief Steve Hyman came before council members during their March 3 meeting requesting their approval in acquiring and implementing a gunshot identification system from crime prevention support and surveillance company Flock Safety.

Hyman explained that the police department had been experiencing difficulties with false reports of gunshots in certain areas of the city, as residents calling 911 to report such incidents had sometimes mistaken the sound for something like a firecracker going off.

He reported that he, city manager Larry Lawrence, and councilman M. Jay Hall, as well as a few city detectives, had been meeting with representatives of the firm and come to the conclusion their support would help solve the issue they were facing.

The proposed system, known as the Raven system, would establish sensors throughout the target areas to aid in more accurately identifying the sound of a gunshot compared to other similar noises.

Hyman asserted that once the system had detected a gunshot, it could identify the area from where the sound originated within a 100-foot range, and, with the system being installed on the laptops utilized by police patrol cars, they would be able to respond even before a report could be made.

He identified the regions around the Brookfield Mews apartment complex, Old Omega Road, and Ferry Lake Road as the key areas for the system to be implemented, but clarified that the Raven system would be able to cover the elementary schools G.O. Bailey, Matt Wilson, and Charles Spencer as well.

Hyman also requested that the city council consider the purchase of Flock’s Falcon cameras, which would be able to better capture and identify license plates, as well as the services for implementing both systems.

Installation would cost $116,000, Hyman reported, and the city would be expected to pay an additional fee of the same amount annually afterwards. He estimated that Flock would need around three to four months to have the system fully implemented, as the city would need to arrange for the proper permits from the state Department of Transportation and work out agreements with private property owners to install some of the sensors on their property.

Council members agreed to discuss the item further at their next meeting.