Defying Mayor Brandon Johnson, aldermen seek to keep ShotSpotter on ward-by-ward basis
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Mayor Brandon Johnson's plan to stop using controversial ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology in Chicago this fall was met with resistance from a key City Council panel on Monday, with some alderpersons wanting to keep it available on a ward-by-ward basis.
The City Council Police and Fire Committee on Monday approved a measure introduced by Ald. David Moore (17th) that would require a City Council vote to halt the use of ShotSpotter technology in any given ward.
Moore criticized the mayor for deciding to end the city's ShotSpotter contract unilaterally, arguing he should have collaborated with the City Council.
If Moore's proposal is approved by the full City Council, it would leave open questions of whether Johnson would be forced to negotiate a new contract with SoundThinking, the company behind ShotSpotter technology, and how it would be deployed on a ward-by-ward basis.
In a statement Monday afternoon, Johnson's office blasted Moore's proposal.
"Public safety is a citywide issue within the responsibility of the police department, with oversight by the Office of the Mayor, and cannot be effectively managed on a ward-by-ward basis in a way that undercuts that authority," a Johnson spokesperson said in an email.
Moore's proposal does not specify how continued use of ShotSpotter beyond the current contract would be funded, or how it would be overseen. ShotSpotter gunshot sensors currently are deployed at the district level at the Chicago Police Department, with each district covering parts of multiple wards.
More than a dozen members of the City Council spoke out in favor of keeping ShotSpotter technology in place during Monday's meeting.
"We need to do whatever is necessary to keep ShotSpotter in this city," Ald. Anthony Beale (9th) said. "We need to keep this technology by all means necessary."
Beale also argued the last-minute deal Johnson brokered in February to keep ShotSpotter in place through Nov. 22 was invalid, and should have gone through the city's typical procurement process, including a new request for proposals from ShotSpotter and any other companies offering gunshot detection systems, before putting the latest contract to a City Council vote.
Ald. Monique Scott (24th) argued that Johnson's decision to keep ShotSpotter in place until the fall, and therefore still in operation during the Democratic National Convention in August, saying it sends a bad message about the city's public safety priorities.
"ShotSpotter is clearly important ... for [DNC] delegates and elected officials, but it's clearly not important for the everyday constituents that pay taxes and that live in these communities," she said.
Supporters of keeping ShotSpotter said that it is not a tool designed to prevent crime, but to help police more quickly respond to shootings, particularly in cases where no one calls 911 about shots being fired.
"Some people have tried to frame this debate as being about a crime-stopping tool. It is not," said Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th). "This technology is about responding when our citizens do not, and responding more accurately when they do. … Nobody calls 911 anymore."
Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th), a former police officer who chairs the Police and Fire Committee, said he believes ShotSpotter can be improved upon, particularly by installing cameras where there are ShotSpotter sensors, so that police can see what kind of situation they're going into when they respond to an alert.
"We have to look at whether or not this technology can be improved upon before we make a decision to get rid of it," he said.
Several aldermen also noted that Johnson decided to get rid of ShotSpotter even though Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling has been a vocal supporter of the technology.
However, critics have questioned the accuracy of ShotSpotter technology, and whether it is worth the continued cost to taxpayers.
Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) pointed to a 2021 report from the city's inspector general that found the vast majority of ShotSpotter deployments turn up no evidence, reportable incident, or crime.
The inspector general's report found that only 9.1% of more than 50,000 ShotSpotter alerts it reviewed between Jan. 1, 2020, and May 31, 2021 actually turned up evidence of a gun-related crime. Those findings are consistent with a recent study by the MacArthur Justice Center, which also found nine out of 10 times, noises detected by ShotSpotter sensors did not lead to any evidence of an actual crime.
"I do think that we need to make decisions based on evidence and data," Sigcho-Lopez said.
Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th) said, while her ward has benefitted from having ShotSpotter in place at times, it has also been "problematic."
Noting her ward office sits alongside the Dan Ryan Expressway, Taylor said, "I can count the number of times on my hands and feet that the police have showed up, and it's been the backfire from the expressway."
Critics of ShotSpotter have said false alerts puts an additional strain on police resources that are already stretched thin.
Taylor said she first wants to know if there is better available gunshot detection technology than ShotSpotter before the City Council decides whether to keep it.
"If ShotSpotter is not the best, then what is?" she said."If we're going to spend money on something, let it be something that actually works, or something that we could collect clear data on. I'm not interested in throwing money at ShotSpotter just because they've been there. That makes no sense, and it's not responsible."
During the meeting's public comment period, Sally Garza Fernandez, CEO of Safety Dynamics, a competing gunshot detection system, said their system is more precise than ShotSpotter, and their technology can detect gunfire within 0.4 seconds.
"That means it's detecting the gunshot, the bullet, even before it leaves the barrel," she said.
Fernandez said, while ShotSpotter's system relies on acoustic experts to review and confirm the sound of gunfire picked up by its sensors, her company's system relies entirely on technology to recognize and locate gunfire.
"It's time for this committee, as well as the City Council, to look at other technologies, and not just assume that what you have is the best thing in the market," she said.
Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th) said, while there is clear value to faster police response times when shots are fired, the city should also set specific metrics for what it wants from ShotSpotter or any other gunshot detection technology so it can accurately measure any system's success.
"We've never articulated what we want to get," Vasquez said.
The mayor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the vote on Moore's proposal for individual wards to get a choice on keeping ShotSpotter.
The measure now goes to the full City Council for a possible vote at its next regular meeting on April 17.