Chicago City Wire

On Monday, the Chicago City Council Committee on Police and Fire approved an ordinance that would keep ShotSpotter, a proven life-saving gunshot detection technology, in wards that choose to use it. 

The vote was a rebuke of Mayor Brandon Johnson decision announced in February that the city was ending its contract with SoundThinking, Inc., the maker of ShotSpotter. Johnson later agreed to extend the contract with SoundThinking through the Democratic National Convention in August.  

The full council is expected to vote on the ordinance, introduced by South Side Alderman David Moore (17th), later this month.

Supporters of ShotSpotter in City Council on Monday said that it's an invaluable tool in some wards.

“Unfortunately, the concept of ShotSpotter is ideal for our city because, unfortunately, the city of Chicago is plagued with probably the most shots fired on a daily basis than anywhere else in the country,” Alderman Anthony Napolitano (41st), a former police officer and firefighter, said. “To me, it’s a tool. It’s a tool that we can use to help neighborhoods that are plagued with this situation. It’s not in my neighborhood, but I’m 1,000 percent for it in anyone’s neighborhood where it could possibly save a life.”

Some community groups have branded use of the technology as racist since it’s deployed principally in Black and Latino communities on the South and West Sides. Defenders have praised ShotSpotter for saving lives in communities distrustful of the police and reticent to call 911 in an emergency.

Others also vouch for its effectiveness.

“Our team reads hundreds of Chicago police reports every week,” CWB Chicago, a crime reporting site posted on March 23. “We can say with certainty that ShotSpotter alerts routinely result in the arrests of armed men—and they’re almost always men—after shots are fired in the city. This series includes cases we happened to come across during our work. It is not an exhaustive list of every ShotSpotter case.”

A 2022 lawsuit filed by the Washington D.C. – based MacArthur Justice Center, with an amicus filed by three Chicago-based activist groups, including Lucy Parsons Labs, charges that the technology is both ineffective and unfairly targets Black and Hispanic communities.

“More than 90% of all ShotSpotter alerts turn up nothing,” a statement from MacArthur said when the lawsuit was announced. “Despite knowing the system is overwhelmingly and dangerously untrustworthy, the City of Chicago deliberately relies on a technology that provides no proven public safety benefit and, instead, enables discriminatory policing […]”

Adam Scott Wandt, a law enforcement technology expert with the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told Chicago City Wire for an earlier story that ShotSpotter— now used in over 140 cities around the country— is a valuable tool but like any technology, has its limitations. 

“It’s a law enforcement technology that shouldn’t in and of itself be used as evidence,” said Wandt. “But it’s a very good tool for alerting police and other first responders so they can get to a scene more quickly, and possibly stopping the spread of additional violence.”

If the council approves Moore’s ordinance, it’s unclear what the ramifications will be, because it is the mayor, not local aldermen, who controls procurement, according to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times. “We’ve never done anything like this before,” alderman Brian Hopkins, a committee chair, told the paper.

In 2018, Chicago agreed to a $33 million, three-year contract to cover twelve districts. It later extended the contract. During his campaign for mayor, Johnson promised to end it.