Chicago City Wire

A gunshot detection software, ShotSpotter, that police rely on – and have praised -- to respond more quickly to potential crime scenes may be eliminated under mayor-elect Brandon Johnson.

During the campaign, Johnson said that one of his public safety initiatives would be getting rid of ShotSpotter (the California-based company recently rebranded itself as SoundThinking), and at least one national public safety expert thinks the move unwise.

Rafael Mangual, the head of research for the Policing and Public Safety Initiative at the Manhattan Institute, told Chicago City Wire that ShotSpotter brings numerous benefits to police and other first responders.

“It helps to eliminate steps to get to the crime scene much faster, and to the injured and potential witnesses,” Mangual said. “You’re not relying for call-in for directions to the scene. That’s something that police around the country benefited from.”

ShotSpotter is now being used by law enforcement in more than 140 cities, according to the company’s website.

In a campaign promise to eliminate ShotSpotter, Johnson, the former public school teacher, cited a 2021 Office of Inspector General report critical of the technology. And last year, the MacArthur Justice Center filed a lawsuit, with three Chicago-based activist groups filing amicus briefs, charging that the technology is both ineffective, and unfairly targets Black and Hispanic communities.

But those claims have been challenged.

For a WTTW report, ShotSpotter CEO Ralph Clark said the MacArthur and OIG studies don’t address the technical efficacy of ShotSpotter. They are posing a question around operational value, he said.

“Although 10% might sound small, you have to look at the nominal number of what’s in that 10%,” Clark said. “We know from looking at the same data that the OIG report produced, ShotSpotter led to 1,100 gunshot-wound victims coded by the data that OIG looked at. Eight hundred of those 1,100 gunshot-wound victims did not have a corresponding 911 call. It means that ShotSpotter was the means by which first responders got to those folks that were potentially bleeding out and potentially saving a percent of those lives.”

ShotSpotter, moreover,has withstood the test of two legal standards, Frye and Daubert, used to weigh the admissibility of scientific evidence in court.

“ShotSpotter evidence and expert witness testimony have been successfully admitted in 190 court cases in 20 states,” the company noted in a statement. “ShotSpotter evidence has prevailed in ten successful Frye challenges and one successful Daubert challenge throughout the United States. Our data compiled with our expert analysis help prosecutors make convictions.”

The Lightfoot Administration extended the city’s contract with the company to run through at least early 2024, the Sun-Times reported.

The original contract was worth up to $33 million, according to city records.

Johnson’s swearing-in is scheduled for May 15.