Council turns up heat to find replacement for ShotSpotter

Opposition City Council members are demanding hearings to determine why Chicago is headed into yet another summer without the crime-fighting tool known as ShotSpotter.

Shortly after taking office, Mayor Brandon Johnson got rid of the controversial gunshot detection system he denounced as a “walkie-talkie on a stick” to honor a campaign promise to his progressive supporters who viewed the technology as costly, ineffective and a contributor to over-policing in Black and Brown communities where the majority of gun violence occurs.

A defiant City Council then empowered Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling to sign a new contract with ShotSpotter, but Johnson declared the ordinance “illegal” — even after negotiating a costly extension to retain the technology through the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Johnson then launched an open competition to replace the gunshot detection technology. SoundThinking, the company that owns ShotSpotter, was one of eight firms that responded to the so-called “request-for-information” by the Sept. 20, 2024 deadline.

Nothing has happened since then — even though the last two city budgets set aside a combined $13.9 million for the replacement technology.

Now ShotSpotter’s leading proponents — Public Safety Committee Chair Brian Hopkins (2nd), Ald. Peter Chico (10th), a former Chicago police officer and Derrick Curtis (18th) — are turning up the heat.

They introduced a resolution at Wednesday’s City Council meeting to examine “delays and missed deadlines” to replace the acoustic gunshot detection system that was once an intrinsic part of Chicago’s crime-fighting technology.

The hearing would also examine what resolution sponsors call “protracted delays in implementing a records management system to improve data collection, analysis and officer oversight, including an early intention system to identify at-risk behavior.”

Hopkins argued that ShotSpotter saves lives, and said it is imperative that Chicago not go through another traditional summer crime surge without the technology aimed at speeding police response to shootings and apprehending those responsible.

“The whole point of it is to dispatch police automatically when shots are fired. This administration is philosophically opposed to that. So even though they said they would replace ShotSpotter, their preference would be for this whole issue to just fade away and we’re not gonna let that happen,” Hopkins told the Sun-Times.

“Lives are at stake here. We now have numerous documented cases where people were shot — in some cases fatally — in areas formerly covered by ShotSpotter’s footprint and no 911 call was made. The victim was found. In some cases, it was minutes. In some cases, it was hours. But in all cases, it was longer than would have been likely if ShotSpotter had triggered an alert.”

Curtis accused Johnson of “slow-walking” the process for selecting a replacement technology, perhaps to avoid the political embarrassment of having to acknowledge that ShotSpotter was the best technology all along.

“They told us that they did have a competition” for a replacement technology, “but [it] was never disclosed who it was,” Curtis said. “He’s not going to replace it because he’d be going back on what he said he was going to do” during the campaign.

But Curtis added, “I’m hoping that enough of the Council that helped get rid of ShotSpotter see the need for it now. We’ve got ten months left. He may say that violent crime is down. Oh, yeah. Statistically it is. But tell that to the parent of a kid who was just killed.”

Garien Gatewood claims he was fired as deputy mayor for community safety by senior mayoral adviser Jason Lee and chief of staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas in apparent retaliation for a complaint he filed with the inspector general’s office in October accusing them of improper interference in City Hall’s contracting process.

The mayor has insisted that he was unaware before Gatewood was fired that he had filed the complaint about Lee and Pacione-Zayas.

Curtis said he would “love” to have Gatewood voluntarily agree to testify at the upcoming hearings “to clear some things up for us.” But Gatewood said he has no intention of attending the hearing and cannot be compelled to do so.

Lee argued that Chicago is getting along fine without ShotSpotter because the "fundamental fact" is that "crime is down. Shootings are down."

"What the mayor has said is there were flaws with the ShotSpotter technology, that ShotSpotter wasn't essential to safety and that's been born out. The average Chicagoan is looking at the results, how safe do they feel and they feel a lot safer since Mayor Johnson was elected," Lee said.
"If the goal is to reduce the number of people victimized in Chicago, then that goal has been achieved."