Chicago’s City Hall is going into another month of discussion over surveillance technology touted to give police and emergency services the upper hand on saving lives and fighting crime. Central to the debate is this: Is it better to spend money on programs addressing the root causes of shootings or is it better to spend millions on technology quickly identifying the locations of shootings, with a possible outcome of saving gunshot victims?
That’s part of the debate at Chicago City Hall as the mayor and City Council struggle to find common ground in the wake of the city’s cancellation of the Shotspotter gunshot detection system. Advocates for Shotspotter say the neighborhoods need it to save lives but opponents say the multimillion-dollar contract costs too much and the technology’s success rate is inflated.
Add to this political environment the fact that, within days of the official end of the Shotspotter service, some City Council members attempted to extend the contract until another technology is swapped in. Mayor Brandon Johnson, who canceled the contract in February 2024, had heated words for them.
“These are the same individuals that are blocking me from investing in their public schools. So I don’t take these individuals seriously. I just don’t. If I dare to be so vulnerable — I’ll be very honest — it actually hurts,” Johnson said to The TRiiBE during an Oct. 9 press conference. “We’ve lost so much in this city, and there are people who are preying on the fears of families who only ask for investment.”
Ald. David Moore (17th Ward) says his constituents, in parts of Chatham, Auburn Gresham, Englewood and Chicago Lawn, disagree with the mayor. He is working with a subgroup of council members to finance an extension of the canceled ShotSpotter contract.
“It’s the people that we serve [who] overwhelmingly support the gunshot protection technology like ShotSpotter because it speeds up [response] times and increases the likelihood that gunshot victims will survive,” said Moore, speaking earlier this week at a press conference. At the time, Moore’s group announced that they helped raise $2.5 million in private funds to help pay the $9.6 million ShotSpotter contract until a new technology replaces it. Supporters included Ald. Stephanie Coleman (16th Ward), Ald. Ronnie Mosley (21st Ward) and Ald. Peter Chico (10th Ward), President of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability Anthony Driver, Former US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Saint Sabina priest Michael Pfleger.
“We are both sadly disappointed with where we are at in terms of any sound detective system that could help alert CPD to save lives in communities like Englewood, Auburn Gresham, Far Southeast Side, North Lawndale, South and West Sides, which impacts Black and brown people,” Coleman said.
Johnson said the $2.5 million those council members raised would be better invested in Black communities more holistically. He also referenced how some council members spoke against the Bring Chicago Home referendum, which was rejected by taxpayers.
“[The alderpeople are] going to raise $2.5 million for a single item that has proven its ineffectiveness, but work against $100 million that could have addressed housing and homelessness in this city,” Johnson said. “Do you understand how disingenuous and how unthoughtful that is? Particularly when it comes to the very neighborhoods that they say they’re advocating for?”
Johnson’s decision to end the ShotSpotter contract is a nod to one of his campaign promises to invest in stopping the root causes of crime. This direction aligns with community organizers who describe Shotspotter’s termination as a success. However, in September, council members sought to transfer power and ownership of the gunshot detection contracts to the Chicago Police Department. That ordinance passed with a 33-14 vote. Johnson promptly said he would veto. This week he reversed course and called the veto “unnecessary” since the ordinance cannot legally be enforced.
”This particular resolution did not reinstate ShotSpotter,” he said. “That’s the misinformation that’s out there. What it intended to do is to give procurement authority to a separate body, which is illegal. The procurement rests within the executive branch. To take that outside the executive branch is a dangerous precedent.”
Garien Gatewood, deputy mayor of community safety, said he believes it’s time to focus on removing guns from communities.
“I think it’s important that we look at areas in the city that don’t have this technology,” Gatewood said. “I think we need to have a conversation about the equitable distribution of resources across the city.”
Johnson echoed Gatewood’s sentiment.
“There are sections of the city where ShotSpotter doesn’t exist,” he said. “What’s the community safety plan for those communities? I can tell you: it’s good jobs, it’s good schools, it’s housing. All I’m saying is, there are some elements of technology that can be useful, but that’s not the be-all end-all; not for community safety. Because if that was the case, then safe communities around America would have it.”
Ald. Monique Scott (24th Ward) is still not convinced. She recently released a scathing statement in support of the technology after a 14-year-old boy died from gunshot wounds in her ward.
“ShotSpotter detected gunfire 60 minutes before he was found, but the system, deactivated by the Mayor’s Administration, could have saved his life with a timely alert,” Scott said in the released statement.
Scott’s sentiment dismisses the 2021 findings in a report by the Office of Inspector General. There, the city found that ShotSpotter rarely led to evidence of gun-related crime but did lead to a change in police behavior, including using alerts as an excuse to stop and frisk residents in certain areas. Moore has dismissed the Inspector General’s report as “dealing with data that was incorrectly collected.”
A recent South Side Weekly analysis also showed that ShotSpotter did not alert Chicago Police to more than 20% of gunshots in their service areas between January 2023 and August 2024. However, SoundThinking (the parent company of ShotSpotter) claims the sensors detects gunfire at a rate of 97% or higher.
Hannah Zhao, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit based in California that advocates for freedom in technology, said it is common for public officials to point to crime when evidence shows that such technology doesn’t prevent or deter it.
“The vendors of these technologies, they go to elected officials and they lobby them,” Zhao told The TRiiBE. “They oversell the effectiveness of their products because they want to get these really lucrative contracts.”
The city is searching for a new gun detection partner. Any future programs would include more community input and offer details on how the devices can help residents, Gatewood said.
There are 20 Black City Council members. Five of them voted against the proposal to grant procurement authority for acoustic gunshot detection programs to the police department.
Here is how they voted.
Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd Ward)
Neighborhoods represented: Bronzeville, South Loop, Washington Park, Fuller Park
Voted in favor of transferring power
Ald. Lamont Robinson (4th Ward)
Neighborhoods represented: Douglas, Hyde Park, Grand Boulevard, Kenwood, South Loop, Museum Campus
Abstained
Ald. Desmond Yancy (5th Ward)
Neighborhoods represented: Avalon Park, Greater Grand Crossing, Hyde Park, South Shore, Woodlawn
Voted in favor of transferring power
Ald. William Hall (6th Ward)
Neighborhoods represented: Auburn Gresham, Chatham, Englewood, and Woodlawn
Voted against transferring power
Ald. Gregory Mitchell (7th Ward)
Neighborhoods represented: Avalon Park, Calumet Heights, South Chicago, South Deering, South Shore
Voted in favor of transferring power
Ald. Michelle Harris (8th Ward)
Neighborhoods represented: Chatham, Greater Grand Crossing, Pullman, Roseland, South Chicago, South Deering South Shore
Voted in favor of transferring power
Ald. Anthony Beale (9th Ward)
Neighborhoods represented: West Pullman, Washington Heights, Hegewisch
Voted in favor of transferring power
Ald. Stephanie Coleman (16th Ward)
Neighborhoods represented: Chicago Lawn, Englewood, Gage Park, New City, West Englewood
Voted in favor of transferring power
David Moore (17th Ward)
Neighborhoods represented: Auburn Gresham, Chatham, Chicago Lawn, Englewood, Greater Grand Crossing, West Englewood, West Lawn
Voted in favor of transferring power
Ald. Derrick Curtis (18th Ward)
Neighborhoods represented: Ashburn, Auburn Gresham, Beverly, Chicago Lawn, West Englewood, West Lawn
Voted in favor of transferring power
Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th Ward)
Neighborhoods represented: Englewood, Fuller Park, Greater Grand Crossing, Hyde Park, New City, Washington Park, West Englewood Woodlawn
Absent for vote
Ald. Ronnie Mosley (21st Ward)
Neighborhoods represented: Ashburn, Auburn Gresham, Beverly, Chatham, Roseland, Washington Heights
Voted in favor of transferring power
Ald. Monique Scott (24th Ward)
Neighborhoods represented: Austin, East Garfield Park, Lower West Side, North Lawndale, South Lawndale, West Garfield Park
Voted in favor of transferring power
Ald. Walter Burnett (27th Ward)
Neighborhoods represented: Cabrini Green, River West, Fulton Market District, West Loop, Illinois Medical District
Absent for vote
Ald. Jason Ervin (28th Ward):
Neighborhoods represented: West Garfield Park, Near West Side, Fifth City, Tri-Taylor, and Greektown.
Voted against transferring power
Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th Ward):
Neighborhoods represented: Belmont Cragin, Dunning, Montclare, Austin
Voted in favor of transferring power
Ald. Emma Mitts (37th Ward):
Neighborhoods represented: Austin, Belmont Cragin, Humboldt Park, West Garfield Park
Voted in favor of transferring power
Ald. Angela Clay (46th Ward):
Neighborhoods represented: Lake View, Uptown, Buena Park
Voted against transferring power
Ald. Matt Martin (47th Ward):
Neighborhoods represented: Albany Park, Avondale, Irving Park, Lake View, Lincoln Square, Uptown
Voted against transferring power
Ald. Maria Hadden (49th Ward):
Neighborhoods represented: Rogers Park, West Ridge
Voted against transferring power
