Determined to hold on to the Chicago market, ShotSpotter offered Wednesday to cut its price by 48% for the next 15 months — from $1.2 million per month to $626,012 — to give the city time to evaluate gunshot detection options in an open competition the company plans to join.
The system now embedded in 12 of Chicago’s 22 most violent police districts is scheduled to be turned off Sunday. Mayor Brandon Johnson canceled the city's contract with SoundThinking, ShotSpotter's parent company, honoring a campaign promise.
Earlier this week, as some City Council members continued to push to keep it in place, Johnson condemned ShotSpotter as a costly waste of taxpayer dollars and little more than “walkie-talkies on a stick.”
But Council proponents of the system are equally determined to maintain it and prepared to try again to override the mayor at Wednesday’s Council meeting.
The offer to cut prices would reduce the city's costs over 15 months to $9.5 million. The city now pays $9 million per year.
The reduction was communicated in a letter to the mayor from Gary Bunyard, ShotSpotter’s vice president of corporate development. It includes the proposed 15-month “contract agreement” with the new price.
That offer, however, depends on the Council approving the extension “no later than” Friday. A second condition is that Johnson “confirms his agreement and intent to follow” the terms of the proposed 15-month extension that includes the new price.
“SoundThinking supports the city’s interests in exploring all options for responding to gun violence. The [15-month] term … should give the city of Chicago the time it requires" to seek other proposals, then "evaluate all options available to the city and then select the best solution(s) for the city moving forward,” Bunyard wrote.
“SoundThinking looks forward to participating" in that process, he wrote.
The new offer arms the Council majority already in ShotSpotter’s corner with even more ammunition to defy the mayor.
"If one life is saved with gunshot detection technololgy, then it is worth having. How can the mayor of our city put a price tag on saving lives? That's what he's doing by not investing in gunshot detection technology," Ald. Ray Lopez (15th) told a news conference Wednesday morning.
Lopez noted that, according to information provided by the Chicago Police Department in response to a Freedom of Information request, 1,976 gunshot victims were identified by ShotSpotter alerts in the 19-month period ending July 31.
Pointing to the price cut, Lopez asked: "Mayor Johnson, how can you ignore this?"
Convinced that they have the required 34 votes, ShotSpotter proponents plan to suspend the rules for immediate consideration of a ShotSpotter ordinance that's been stalled in committee. It would empower Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling to sign a new contract with ShotSpotter.
If that ordinance fails, their backup plan is to hold a special meeting right after Wednesday’s regular session. At the special meeting, they would consider a new ordinance empowering the executive director of the obscure Office of Public Safety Administration to sign the new contract.
The Council already tried to tie Johnson’s hands when it comes to getting rid of ShotSpotter, when it voted 34-14 on a measure blocking Johnson from pulling the technology from any ward without a meeting of the Public Safety Committee and approval by the full Council.
Johnson has ignored that ordinance, arguing that he, alone, has the power to approve city contracts.
On Monday, Johnson condemned the Council for refusing to give up the fight.
“I would just hope that the alders recognize that we cannot mimic the behavior of the federal government where rules are just being broken because you have the interests of corporations who are trying to sell a product that we’ve spent almost $100 million on,” the mayor said.
Johnson campaigned on a promise to get rid of ShotSpotter to appease an anti-technology movement that gained steam after the fatal police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo in March 2021.
The mayor made good on that promise, even though Snelling — Johnson's own pick to run the police department — is among ShotSpotter's biggest cheerleaders.
Johnson was so determined to keep his promise he announced his decision to cancel the contract before finalizing an exit plan. That forced him to pay a premium to negotiate a extension that maintained ShotSpotter through the traditionally violent summer months, including the Democratic National Convention, held in Chicago last month.
The system used in 12 of Chicago’s 22 most violent police districts is scheduled to be turned off Sunday. Mayor Brandon Johnson kept a campaign promise by canceling ShotSpotter, and has defended that decision even as dozens of City Council members are pushing to keep it.
By Fran Spielman
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
Mayor Brandon Johnson wants to keep a campaign promise and get rid of the gunshot detection system. But there’s evidence the technology saves lives. City Council should remember that on Wednesday.
A City Council majority determined to keep the gunshot detection system operating is gearing up for a legislative showdown Wednesday. But the mayor is determined to follow through on his promise to shut down the ShotSpotter system on Sunday.
Proponents of the gunshot detection technology wanted to force a City Council vote Wednesday on an ordinance empowering CPD Supt. Larry Snelling to sign a new contract with ShotSpotter. But by putting it on her committee agenda for Monday, Ald. Michelle Harris can prevent full Council action later next week.
Ald. David Moore plans to force a vote on an ordinance that would give Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling the power to extend the city’s deal for ShotSpotter, but at least 2 Council members cast doubt on Moore’s maneuver.
After a long, emotionally charged debate, a defiant City Council voted 34-14 to lay the groundwork to tie Mayor Brandon Johnson’s hands when it comes to canceling the contract with the gunshot detection technology known as ShotSpotter.
By Fran Spielman
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
On the eve of a City Council showdown, Ralph Clark argued “people will die” if Mayor Brandon Johnson is allowed to follow through on his promise to cancel the controversial gunshot detection technology contract on Nov. 22.
By Fran Spielman
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
The statistics, compiled by the Chicago Police Department, show response times over the last six years were more than two minutes quicker with a ShotSpotter alert than the gunshot detection alert accompanied by a 911 call.
Votes on $70 million to help migrants and the bond issue to fund housing and economic development now are set for Friday. The Council was, however, poised to approve a slew of other measures.
By Fran Spielman
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
The Police and Fire Committee approved an order championed by South Side Ald. David Moore that would empower the local alderperson to decide whether to keep ShotSpotter in their ward and prohibit the mayor from eliminating the technology in a ward where the local alderperson supports it without a full Council vote.
By Fran Spielman
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
A City Council committee will consider an ordinance Monday that could let individual alderpersons decide whether to continue ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology in their wards.
By Fran Spielman
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
Former Inspector General Joseph Ferguson, now president of the Civic Federation, told the Sun-Times that details of the new deal indicate the City Council ‘probably should be vetting and approving this thing’ and not ‘just sort of play along with the mayor.’
Chicago police initially claimed officers were fired upon by a man, but the Civilian Office of Police Accountability released information Tuesday indicating the person involved was a child and did not shoot at police.
By Sophie Sherry
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
Mayor Brandon’s Johnson’s administration negotiated an extension under less favorable terms than the original deal, which could violate city code, sources say. But the city’s Law Department says “a myriad of code provisions” permit the mayor’s extension.
Johnson announced last week that the city planned to shut down the gunshot detection system after the historically violent summer months and the Democratic National Convention, making good on a key campaign promise.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office worked out a renewal to the nearly $49 million contract with ShotSpotter’s parent company, SoundThinking, through Sept. 22.
The current $49 million contract with ShotSpotter expires Friday, meaning the gunshot detection system that covers 12 of the city’s 22 police districts could be shut down as early as the end of the day.
ShotSpotter is bad enough to give it the ax now, yet good enough to keep around for another six months? Only in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s City Hall does this make sense.
If Johnson was so determined to honor his campaign promise to get rid of the controversial gunshot detection system, why did he wait until the last minute to timidly announce the decision?
After the Sun-Times first reported the decision, Johnson said the city will drop the gunshot detection system Sept. 22, meaning cops will have access to it throughout the summer and the Democratic National Convention.
Ralph Clark, CEO of ShotSpotter’s parent company, defended the controversial gunshot detection technology, saying the company guarantees at least 90% efficacy.
With Mayor Johnson on the clock to decide whether to renew the ShotSpotter deal, an internal document obtained by the Sun-Times underscores previous criticism that the technology is ineffective and too costly.
Studies show the gunshot detection technology has no crime reduction benefit, a University of Chicago professor writes.
By Robert Vargas
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
A top mayoral aide said Johnson’s signature was unwittingly attached to a document authorizing the payment, which covered a contract extension approved by Lori Lightfoot.
The mayor will weigh all opinions on the controversial tech from a company whose contract ends next year, his adviser Jason Lee told the Sun-Times.
By Fran Spielman
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
ShotSpotter has rebranded itself as SoundThinking, but it’s still a false solution to Chicago’s real problem with gun violence, activists write. Millions spent on the technology should go to violent prevention efforts.
By Sharah Hutson
and
Alyx Goodwin
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
The rebrand comes months after the city extended the company’s contract for a second time. Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson has vowed to end the deal.
By Tom Schuba
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
A ShotSpotter spokeswoman said the multimillion-dollar deal was extended in October, the same month Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson declared his candidacy.
By Tom Schuba
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
In high-crime communities, citizens stop calling 911 for every shooting. ShotSpotter lets officers respond quickly and possibly stop active shooters, help victims and apprehend suspects faster than if they had to wait for 911 calls.
By Letters to the Editor
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
ShotSpotter — sold to police as an accurate and technologically-advanced law enforcement tool — has proven time and again to be less-than-advertised.
A report by a widely used gunshot detection firm says human employees are given broad discretion to decide whether a sound is a gunshot, thunder or nothing.
By Garance Burke | Associated Press
and
Michael Tarm | Associated Press
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]
ShotSpotter came under increased scrutiny after a police officer fatally shot 13-year-old Adam Toledo. In August 2021, the city’s Office of the Inspector General found the technology can change the way officers interact with areas they patrol.
By Jon Seidel
[month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone]