CAMBRIDGE, MASS. (WHDH) - The Cambridge City Council voted Monday to bring back the use of gun detection technology for 90 days while the city gathers public opinion and studies its use. The vote comes in the wake of a deadly shooting that claimed the life of a 32-year-old Department of Public Works employee in July.
Cambridge City leaders have faced calls for action within the community in the month following the death of Xavier Batista, who was shot and killed in Cambridge on July 4th as he was walking to work.
During a meeting last month, community members demanded improvements to public safety, with one of the suggestions being to reinstall ShotSpotter technology, which is designed to alert police when gunshots ring out. It had already been implemented in the city, but the City Council voted in May to remove it due to privacy concerns.
At a meeting at Cambridge City Hall Monday night, some residents voiced their arguments against the technology, saying it can produce false positives and raises concerns of surveillance in neighborhoods.
“I am mortified by his death,” said Katherine Silvestre, a Cambridge resident. “This does not change my opposition to ShotSpotter as an invasive form of surveillance in my neighborhood.”
“It is ineffective at reducing gun violence. It routinely deploys officers to scenes where they find no evidence a gun was fired,” said Gideon Epstein, Policy Counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts.
“The urgent needs of a traumatized community after a tragic shooting deserve attention and action, but so does the long-term strategy of changing the conditions that cause violence and supporting community safety,” said Meg Stone, Executive Director at IMPACT Boston.
Joanna Jimenez and other residents argued in favor of the technology’s reinstallation. Jimenez said her 21-year-old son Angel Nieves was killed in Cambridge in 2025 when he was shot 15 times.
“Angel Nieves was my son. He was an uncle, he was a brother, and he was loved,” Jimenez said. “We don’t abandon public safety tools because they need improvement, we make them better.”
She explained that she would rather improve the system instead of not using it at all.
“I don’t have all the answers, but I know I want justice for my son, and I don’t want no mother, no family member, to ever worry about whether they’re walking on the street, or their loved one is walking on the street, and someone would just take their lives,” Jimenez said.
Part of Monday’s proposal also including the creation of a group of residents who could give feedback on ShotSpotter, how it’s used, and whether it is effective in the city.
(Copyright (c) 2026 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)