Chicago mayor’s rejection of gunshot detection tech seen by critics as new take on defunding police

Multiple gunshot victims in Chicago have died in the weeks since the city abandoned a gunshot detection system designed to trigger emergency services quicker than 911 — a move some city council members have criticized as a backdoor way of defunding the police.

Mayor Brandon Johnson let the city’s contract with detection technology ShotSpotter expire in September, fulfilling a campaign promise.

The Democrat, who took office in 2023, had argued that the system’s vast network of covert microphones failed to improve public safety in the neighborhoods that struggle with violence.

But Mr. Johnson’s critics say the former teachers union official, the latest in a long line of left-leaning mayors in the heavily Democratic city, is just trying to shift money and resources away from the Chicago Police Department, the nation’s second-largest after New York City.

The city council responded by passing a new law that would circumvent the mayor’s authority and instead give Chicago’s top cop the final say on ShotSpotter’s future. Mr. Johnson has rebuked the “illegal” legislation and is refusing to enforce its mandates. 

It’s setting up a possible courtroom battle between the 47-year-old mayor and the dozens of aldermen on the other side of the debate over the technology that legislators argue had saved close to 100 lives in the 17 months since Mr. Johnson took office.

Alderman Raymond Lopez, who represents Ward 15 in the city’s South Side, said those who support closing down ShotSpotter live in the city’s tony North Side neighborhoods and believe Chicago’s more racially diverse residents in the south “can’t make a decision for themselves.” 

“Many advocates who have cheered the mayor on for his canceling of this contract have said this is one step toward the complete abolition of policing and the dismantling of the policing apparatus,” Mr. Lopez told The Washington Times. “Those are their exact terms that they use in describing this victory.”

But Chicago’s turn away from the detection technology, while contentious, is not unprecedented.

The Windy City joins Houston and Atlanta as cities that have ditched their contract with parent company and operator SoundThinking.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire went as far as to say the technology — which verifies sounds of gunshots with artificial intelligence and human monitors who then pass it along to police — was a “gimmick” and a “feel-good program.”

Mr. Johnson, for his part, has said the city “spent $100 million on what essentially is walkie-talkies on a stick.”

Studies on the gunshot detection system have shown that it does hasten police response times to shootings, but does little to deter crime or bring about arrests in those same areas.

Chicago’s Office of Inspector General found in 2021 that the system’s alerts “rarely produce evidence of a gun-related crime, rarely give rise to investigatory stops and even less frequently lead to the recovery of gun crime-related evidence.”

The mayor’s suggested alternatives to the technology include hiring more violence interrupters. 

Still, Miami, Las Vegas and New York City make up a few of the over 150 cities using ShotSpotter to capture gunfire that may not rattle someone enough to call 911. 

The gap in ShotSpotter coverage is already being felt in Chicago. 

Eight people have been shot in incidents that have gone, at least initially, unnoticed since ShotSpotter went offline, according to local news outlet CWB Chicago. Three of those victims later died, including 19-year-old Sierra Evans, who police said was mortally wounded last month near an alley in South Side but wasn’t discovered until hours after she was shot. Local media reported that the alley had been covered by ShotSpotter until the city let the system go dark. 

“What saddens me is that a young lady had to, number one, die alone, but two, possibly could have gotten some help, some immediate help, and possibly could have survived,” Alderman David Moore said at a vigil held earlier this month. “And possibly could have had enough evidence or captured the person that had done this so that we can bring justice.”

Mr. Moore, who represents Ward 17 in the city’s South Side, is spearheading a fundraising effort to bring ShotSpotter back through the end of 2025.

He’s had businesses pledge over $2 million to get the detection technology back up and running. SoundThinking, the ShotSpotter operator, also said it would slash its price by nearly 50% through the end of 2025, offering to keep the system in place for roughly $626,000 per month rather than $1.2 million.

Mr. Lopez, the Ward 15 alderman, pushed back on Mr. Johnson’s critiques of ShotSpotter’s purported lack of success. 

The alderman said the purpose of the technology is to detect gunshots, not to prevent them. To blame ShotSpotter for not bringing down violent crime “is like saying smoke detectors are not stopping fires,” the alderman said.

Mr. Lopez said it’s estimated that the detection technology saved 86 people since Mr. Johnson took office in May 2023. He added that nearly 2,000 people have been able to receive more timely medical aid in the city during that same span, thanks in part to ShotSpotter’s alerts.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the cities using the ShotSpotter system. Portland, Oregon, audited the technology but decided not to pursue a contract with the company.