Will ShotSpotter end in Chicago on Friday? Mayor dodges questions as firm indicates there's no deal

The question of whether the Chicago Police Department will retain access to ShotSpotter past Friday loomed over City Hall days after Mayor Brandon Johnson announced his plan to nix the controversial gunshot detection system at the end of the summer.

During a bizarre news conference Thursday, Johnson repeatedly refused to answer questions about whether ShotSpotter’s parent company, SoundThinking, would renew the current $49 million contract that’s set to expire at the end of the day Friday.

Johnson announced earlier in the week that he was ending the city’s relationship with ShotSpotter, but his office insisted the technology would remain until September — after the Democratic National Convention.

However, his administration hadn’t struck a new deal with SoundThinking, which has pushed for a longer renewal period.

In a statement Thursday, the Silicon Valley firm said it spent much of last year trying to engage the city in contract talks. As recently as December, the firm presented officials with a memorandum of understanding for a 12-month extension.

That proposal led to “preliminary discussions” about an eight- to nine-month extension that would’ve allowed the city to open a contract up for bidding and evaluate acoustic gunshot detection, the company said.

“Contrary to those discussions and without consultation with SoundThinking … Mayor Johnson announced a decommission plan, involving an extension of ShotSpotter through September 22,” the company said.

“We believe the shared goal of an extension period must provide the best possible data and analysis to the residents of the city of Chicago through greater transparency and reporting standards,” it said. “The way this is secured is through a minimum 12-month extension and modifications to the city’s current data and reporting protocols.”

A source familiar with the negotiations said the system could shut down when the existing contract ends. That could force police officials in the city’s most violent South and West Side districts to effectively go cold turkey.

Mayor dodges questions

Speaking to the media after Thursday’s City Council meeting, Johnson was asked repeatedly whether he had secured a deal to keep ShotSpotter until September.

Again and again, the mayor did not answer the question directly. Instead, he reiterated his goal of giving the police department breathing room to make the adjustment to life after ShotSpotter.

“I’ve been very clear from the very beginning around this, and I’m still clear that, as we work to give law enforcement time to draw down from this operation, it was important to provide that type of runway,” Johnson said.

“We’ve maintained a very clear presentation about what our intentions are while also making sure that we’re very thoughtful with the partner who has been a part of this infrastructure,” he said.

At one point, Johnson was asked for a simple “yes” or “no” answer to the pressing question of whether ShotSpotter will be shut off this week.

“It may be a `yes’ or `no’ question for you,” an exasperated Johnson said. “But I will respectfully ask that you ask your question and allow me to answer the question in the way in which I want to.

“I don’t dictate the question. So, please don’t dictate how I answer a question, OK?” he said. “I made a commitment, and I’ve honored that commitment. And we’ve also provided a runway.”

By canceling ShotSpotter, Johnson fulfilled a key campaign promise to eliminate the technology his supporters say is costly, ineffective and contributes to overpolicing in Black and Brown communities.

‘Low-ball’ offer added ‘insult to injury’

But some council members have expressed grave concerns about how the mayor’s decision could affect public safety in a city that saw 617 homicides and more than 2,400 shootings last year.

Earlier Thursday, Ald. David Moore (17th) introduced an order that would mandate that the city keep the technology in place. The measure would reverse Johnson’s decision and give his handpicked police superintendent, Larry Snelling, input “in decisions regarding the removal or reallocation of any police resources.”

Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th), a former police officer who chairs the council’s police and fire committee, said he wouldn’t be surprised if SoundThinking refused to stay on through the summer.

“When you have a product that you’re very proud of and someone says they no longer need your product, or we don’t believe your product is effective, are you going to be willing to stay around?” Taliaferro asked.

Another alderperson, who asked to remain anonymous, said ShotSpotter declined the extension after the Johnson administration “added insult to injury” by offering the company a “low-ball” figure.

Barring last-minute negotiations to salvage the extension, Taliaferro says he is fearful of what will happen if the gunshot detection technology is turned off late Friday, forcing Chicago’s most violent police districts to go without the technology.

“Response times are already high,” he said. “This could be very detrimental to how effective policing will be over the summer when it comes down to victims of gunfire.”

Johnson kept campaign vow

Opponents say getting rid of ShotSpotter is an important step in rebuilding shattered trust between citizens and police. It’s also a prelude to dismantling the police department’s growing arsenal of surveillance tools that includes a vast camera network, license plate readers and facial recognition technology.

As a candidate, Johnson vowed to end the ShotSpotter deal and “invest in new resources that go after illegal guns without physically stopping and frisking Chicagoans on the street.” He insisted the technology is “unreliable and overly susceptible to human error,” adding that it “played a pivotal role” in the fatal police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo in March 2021.

Officer Eric Stillman was responding to a ShotSpotter alert when he chased Adam into an alley in Little Village and shot him in the chest just a split-second after the teen dropped a gun and raised his hands.

The shooting fueled an activist movement that has pushed to end the ShotSpotter contract, and it was followed by two scathing reports that slammed the technology.

In May 2021, the MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern School of Law found that nearly 86% of police deployments to alerts of gunfire prompted no formal reports of any crime. Then that August, the city’s Office of the Inspector General concluded the technology rarely led to investigatory stops or evidence of gun crimes.

More recently, the Sun-Times reported last week that the Cook County state’s attorney’s office had conducted a review of ShotSpotter that found the technology had a minimal effect on prosecuting gun violence cases.

Meanwhile, Snelling has continued to tout ShotSpotter as an important tool for law enforcement.

Amid the drama this week, high-ranking police sources said they had been kept out of the loop as the contract negotiations with SoundThinking played out.