Kicking the ShotSpotter habit will be expensive, numbers show

The controversial gunshot detection technology known as ShotSpotter may be on its way out in Chicago, but the exit will be slow and expensive.

At a news conference Wednesday, Mayor Brandon Johnson estimated the cost of extending the contract he had just cancelled for seven months followed by a two-month "wind-down" period would cost "roughly $8 million or so."

A report in the Chicago Sun-Times fixed the exact cost at $8.6 million over the course of nine months. That’s more than the city paid for the whole of last year, and it brings the total value of ShotSpotter Contract with SoundThinking to over $57 million.

"It really came down to, 'Is it providing a real, true benefit in what it promised to do?'" Johnson said.

But critics on Friday said the mayor's zeal to fulfill campaign promises is costing the city too much money.

"I think the mayor has handled this poorly from the get-go," said 15th Ward Ald. Raymond Lopez. "You shouldn’t have announced anything until you had the deal set in stone and signed."

Lopez said ShotSpotter may not deter crime, but it does detect it and report it to police. He said it's especially important in neighborhoods like his where he says it has saved lives.

There is a system sensor on top of a light pole right outside of his office.

"Oftentimes the politics of public safety and the politics of this administration hampers the execution of what we are trying to do for the people of the city of Chicago," he said.

Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling has said he was in favor of keeping ShotSpotter. Johnson said they have had conversations, but he is looking for better ways to respond that don't always involve the police.

"I personally would like to see a system where EMTs respond," the mayor said Wednesday.

Some alderpersons are asking that the data collected from the last months of the ShotSpotter program be used to analyze not whether it is a tool to fight crime, but rather a technology that can save lives.