If you hear gunshots in downtown Denver Thursday night, it could be because of a test Denver police are conducting.
The department is expanding the Shot Spotter system, which detects when a gun is fired and where it happened. The system then alerts police.
To test the recently-installed equipment and calibrate existing equipment, police will fire bullets into a trap between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.
The department said the live gunshot tests will consist of a sequence of shots followed by validation that the system detected the sound correctly.
Police said they will start the test in Northwest Denver then move into the downtown area.
Shot Spotter is a system that the Denver Police Department (DPD) has been using since early 2015. It captures and triangulates the sound of gunfire and pinpoints the location of where a gun went off to within 25 feet.
The program is expanding to downtown Denver, making it the fifth area in the city to be served the technology.
"We want to send a message loud and clear to the people of Denver that this remarkably safe city, is now even safer," the Denver Police Department said at an announcement Thursday morning.
The department said the technology has already been very effective in other areas of Denver. Since early 2015, system alerts have resulted in 220 arrests and 173 firearms recovered.
While the Denver Police Department isn't saying shootings have gone up downtown, the population certainly has. The Downtown Denver Partnership said 3,000 new residents have moved to the area in just the last year.
After Thursday night's testing, the Shot Spotter gunshot detection system will be operable in downtown Denver.
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