by Andy Williams, Associate Editor

Television shows like HBO’s The Wire and Homicide: Life on the Street depict Baltimore as a gritty city. While the shows are fiction, crime is a real concern and Johns Hopkins University is testing a system that detects gunshots in an effort to help keep the campus safe.

The gunshot detection system was installed last year at Johns Hopkins University in downtown Baltimore. It hasn’t led to any arrests or even detected gunfire yet. But it has detected two car backfires. At least one university official says the system has promise.

That’s one of the reasons Johns Hopkins allowed the system, donated by its developer, Planning Systems Inc. (PSI), Reston, Va., to be installed. PSI is a technology firm that specializes in threat detection devices and whose parent company, QinetiQ North America Technology Solutions, rolled out its suicide bomb detection system last year.