Chicago Mayor to End Contract With Gunfire Detection Company

A pedestrian walks with a dog at the intersection of South Stony Island Avenue and East 63rd Street where the ShotSpotter technology is in use above the crossroads in Chicago, Ill., on Aug. 10, 2021. Charles Rex Arbogast/AP Photo

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson announced the city will cancel its contract with a gunfire-detecting technology company.

SoundThinking is the company behind ShotSpotter, a gunfire detection system that relies on acoustic sensory technology dispersed throughout the city, which is fed into a processing unit and user interface that displays alerts signaling when there is gunfire.

According to Mr. Johnson’s office, the contract expires in February and the technology will be decommissioned in September.

Until then, law enforcement will “assess tools and programs that effectively increase both safety and trust” as well as “work to revamp operations” to reduce violent crime.

“Moving forward, the City of Chicago will deploy its resources on the most effective strategies and tactics proven to accelerate the current downward trend in violent crime,” Mr. Johnson said in a press release. “Doing this work, in consultation with community, violence prevention organizations and law enforcement, provides a pathway to a better, stronger, safer Chicago for all.”

The city of Chicago has used the system since 2018, but in his 2023 campaign, the mayor promised to cancel the contract.

According to The Associated Press, the system is being used in 140 cities across the country.

Chicago’s Inspector General Report

In 2021, the technology became the focal point of controversy over whether it was contributing to excessive policing.

According to a report from the Chicago Office of Inspector General, the Chicago Police Department’s (CPD) responses to the technology’s gunfire alerts “rarely produce documented evidence of a gun-related crime, investigatory stop, or recovery of a firearm. Additionally, OIG identified evidence that the introduction of ShotSpotter technology in Chicago has changed the way some CPD members perceive and interact with individuals present in areas where ShotSpotter alerts are frequent.”

The city’s deputy inspector general for public safety, Deborah Witzburg, told the Chicago Sun-Times in 2021 that the technology also came with “significant costs” and led to “tragic outcomes,” referencing the fatal March 2021 police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo.

According to Ms. Witzburg, police officers were responding to a ShotSpotter alert when they arrived on the scene.

Chicago Police Union President John Catanzara later called the shooting “100 percent justified,” arguing amid protests that the officer had less than one second to decide whether the boy was holding a gun when he turned to face the officer.

“There is no way a rational person can say they can process that and their muscle reaction would be less than one second,” Mr. Catanzara told CNN.

‘False and Misleading Statements’

On its website, SoundThinking responded to what it called “false and misleading statements related to our leading gunshot detection technology.”

“We embrace criticism and respect differences of opinion,” the company stated. “Unfortunately, these untrue statements have been unfairly twisted to impersonate facts in the public dialogue about how we help communities improve public safety. On this page, we set the record straight, beginning with debunking the top myths about ShotSpotter.”

In response to the claim that it’s not accurate, SoundThinking said this was false and that the technology has had a 97 percent accuracy rate and a 0.5 percent false positive rate over the course of three years.

In response to allegations that ShotSpotter coverage is racially biased, SoundThinking said this is not only false but “ignores the pain many communities are suffering from.”

“We work with our customers—local law enforcement agencies and cities—to determine coverage areas based on historical gunfire and homicide data to assess the areas most in need of gunshot detection,” SoundThinking said. “We believe all residents who live in communities experiencing persistent gunfire deserve rapid police response, which gunshot detection enables—regardless of race or geographic location.”