Two multi-million-dollar contracts for ShotSpotter police surveillance tools violated a community oversight law, according to the Michigan Court of Appeals.

A panel of judges overturned a lower court ruling last week in favor of residents and legal groups that sued Detroit in 2022. Judges found the city repeatedly violated requirements to publicly post a report on how the technology works before holding public hearings at City Council but stopped short of voiding the contracts, allowing a lower court to determine the consequence.

“With surveillance and similar technology ever encroaching into every recess of modern life, procedural safeguards cannot be ignored or downplayed by government actors as mere technicalities,” reads a joint opinion from Presiding Judge Kristina Robinson Garrett

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