ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office is rolling out new cameras, license plate readers, gunshot detection technology, and tasers.

BCSO Sheriff John Allen held a news conference Thursday to talk about the new tools.

Their gunshot detection technology is similar to what Albuquerque police have used for a few years, but BCSO isn’t using the same company as APD. Instead, they are using a rival tech called Raven.

“Are we targeting BIPOC areas, lower socioeconomic areas where more gunshots are? I will tell you, no,” Allen said. “One of the first areas that we’re doing is Paradise Hills because we’re getting a lot, we’re seeing the crime push up into that area.”

The sheriff says his department will be transparent with the data they collect in an effort to not distort the real picture of what’s happening in the community.

“We will now be able to have subcategories,” Allen said. “OK, there were shots fired, but it wasn’t associated with any other crime, unless it comes up and it’s followed through for an investigative purpose. I just don’t want to throw it out there and people freak out, saying, ‘Wow,c rime has really gone up in Paradise Hills and there’s so many shots being fired, and man, we have all these violent crimes.’ That is not the case.”

Along with that new system, BCSO is also launching a real-time crime center. It will be a hybrid center that deputies will have access to on the go. He says the goal is to be more accurate and save lives.

“I’m very concerned on if a description of a vehicle comes out that we’re just blanket stopping everybody and trying to go with the reasonable suspicious,” Allen said. “I want precision-based policing.”

The sheriff’s office will pay nearly $2 million a year over 10 years to Axon for the new body cameras, in-car cameras, and tasers. It will cost around $100,000 a year for Fusus to provide the real-time crime center tech.

About $15,000 will be paid yearly to Flock Safety for the gunshot detectors and license plate readers.

Allen said the new technology should be rolled out by the end of October.