Police Committee defies Johnson on ShotSpotter, with his allies and critics supporting the technology

A defiant City Council committee on Monday laid the groundwork to tie Mayor Brandon Johnson’s hands when it comes to canceling the ShotSpotter contract.

The Police and Fire Committee approved an order championed by South Side Ald. David Moore (17th) that would empower the local alderperson to decide whether to keep ShotSpotter. It also would prohibit the mayor from eliminating the technology in a ward where the local alderperson supports it without first notifying and getting approval from the full City Council. Members who choose to buck the mayor by keeping ShotSpotter would be protected from punishment.

The order also mandates the Chicago Police Department to collect more specific data to justify signing a new long-term contract with ShotSpotter instead of terminating the agreement on Nov. 22, as called for under the nine-month extension that Johnson hastily negotiated at a rate significantly higher than the city paid for the entire past year of service.

The information that now must be collected and publicly reported includes incidents when ShotSpotter sensors detect gunshots, but nobody calls 911 to report a shooting. CPD must also report the rates at which shell casings and weapons are recovered after ShotSpotter alerts, the rates at which alerts lead to arrests, and the varying response times to alerts and 911 calls without the gunshot detection technology.

“I believe, and many of my colleagues agree with me, that a unilateral decision about keeping our communities safe shouldn’t be made, but should be made in collaboration, as our mayor always talks about collaboration, with the City Council,” Moore said.

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During lengthy debate before Monday’s voice vote, mayoral allies and critics alike joined forces in declaring their support for the technology that uses sound sensors to alert police to gunshots and pinpoint where they came from.

West Ald. Monique Scott (24th) questioned Johnson’s decision to honor his campaign promise to cancel the ShotSpotter contract, but keep using the technology through the summer, when violent crime traditionally spikes and Chicago plays host to the Democratic National Convention.

“ShotSpotter is clearly important … for delegates and elected officials, but it’s clearly not important for the everyday constituents that pay taxes and that live in these communities,” Scott said.

ShotSpotter’s sound sensors have been embedded in technology hubs at 12 of Chicago’s 22 police districts, including those in South and West Side districts, such as Scott’s, that chronically experience the highest levels of violent crime.

Scott said she gets daily text messages from her local CPD district commander about shootings, some fatal, in her ward. In almost every case, including a mass shooting in Austin over the weekend, police are alerted by ShotSpotter., not 911. The same thing happens in 60% of shooting incidents, according to the Chicago Police Department’s assistant director of strategic initiatives.

“It’s disheartening to sit here and we’re supposed to have power and have a lack of power,” she said. “We all work in these 50 wards, but don’t have a voice? Who are we speaking for?”

Scott wondered aloud what her West Side district will do in August, when “all of” the police resources are reassigned to the downtown area for Lollapalooza and the DNC.

“Then we have these mass shootings on the West and South Side. People will just be laying out in the street like that poor officer [Areanah Preston] last year who just laid there in the grass. She was found … because of ShotSpotter,” she said.

Preston was shot and killed by robbers in the South Side Avalon Park neighborhood last May as the Calumet District officer drove home from work.

Police Committee Chair Chris Taliaferro (29th) told Scott he shares her concerns after mass shootings on Saturday and Sunday in Austin. Neither generated a single 911 call.

The two most powerful members of Johnson’s City Council leadership team — Finance Committee Chair Pat Dowell (3rd) and Budget Chair Jason Ervin (28th) — both said they support ShotSpotter.

“This weekend, I had three people shot in the 4600-block of State at 4 a.m. State Street at that location has no residents. … And the only way that the police responded to that was because [of] a ShotSpotter alert,” Dowell said.

“It is important for us to figure out how we can maintain this technology or how we can find something that’s going to be better,” Ervin said.

The mayor’s office has argued public safety is a “citywide issue within the responsibility of the police department with oversight” by the mayor. It “cannot be effectively managed on a ward-by-ward basis in a way that undercuts that authority,” the mayor’s office said.

Questions remain, such as: If alderpersons opt to continue using it in their wards after Nov. 22, when the $8.6 million extension expires, how exactly would ShotSpotter be paid? Would the mayor be compelled to negotiate a new contract with ShotSpotter?

Moore said only that there’s plenty of time before Nov. 22 to negotiate a new contract.

Committee OKs higher retirement age for CPD

Also on Monday, the Police Committee agreed to raise the mandatory retirement age for Chicago Police Department officers from 63 to 65. It will remain at 63 for Chicago firefighters, who oppose a higher age limit on grounds that their job is more physically taxing.

Allowing police officers to work an extra two years would reduce financial strain on depleted police pension funds and help chip away at a severe shortage of officers.