With only weeks to go before ShotSpotter’s Chicago deal ends, aldermen have launched two last ditch attempts to circumvent Mayor Brandon Johnson and extend the city’s contract for gunshot detection services.
Wednesday’s meeting could offer two chances for the City Council to voice its support for ShotSpotter. The first is being led by South Side Ald. David Moore, 17th, who has signaled he will to use a parliamentary maneuver to force a vote on an ordinance compelling the police superintendent to extend the contract.
Meanwhile, members of the council’s informal pro-police caucus called for a separate special vote immediately following the regular City Council meeting on a measure allowing the head of the city’s Office of Public Safety Administration to extend that same contract.
It’s the latest round in a contentious fight over the future of the technology designed to alert public safety personnel to the locations of suspected shootings. Johnson delivered on a campaign pledge to phase out its use back in February, citing its cost and concerns around effectiveness. A two-month transition period starts on Sept. 22.
At an unrelated press conference Monday, Johnson repeated that the company did not live up to its initial promises to reduce gun violence, describing the technology as little more than a “walkie talkie on a pole,” and arguing the renewal was being “pushed by corporate interests.”
Many aldermen — including within the Black Caucus — have pushed back on the phase-out, pressing for votes and hearings to keep the technology in place. 34 aldermen voted to take away the power of the mayor to decide the contract’s fate in May. But Johnson both derided and ignored it, arguing the vote made “no sense” because aldermen had no executive authority over city contracts.
Even so, Moore introduced an ordinance in July ordering Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling to execute a contract extension for at least another two years. That call has been sidelined in the Rules Committee since then, awaiting assignment to another committee for an up or down vote. On Monday, the committee opted to “table” that measure, allowing it to be called up directly in the Wednesday City Council meeting.
Another group of seven aldermen that support ShotSpotter also asked for a special meeting to hold a vote on a measure to allow the head of the OPSA — rather than Snelling — to start, renew or extend gunshot detection technology contracts. OPSA has administrative oversight of the fire, police and emergency communications departments.
The group, led by Johnson critic Anthony Beale, 9th, said it would “gladly rescind” its call for the meeting if the council voted for legislation extending ShotSpotter before Wednesday afternoon. Other supporters include Ald. Marty Quinn, 13th; Ald. Monique Scott, 24th; and Ald. Peter Chico, 10th, who said as a police officer, ShotSpotter had helped him find wounded gunshot victims despite no one calling 911.
Rules Chair Ald. Michelle Harris, 8th, has been in a tough spot as both an ally of the mayor and a strong proponent of ShotSpotter’s presence in the city.
On Monday, she reiterated her support for the technology, but declined to say how she would vote on an ordinance extending it. “Recently, I had a shooting in my ward. The police were there within minutes because of ShotSpotter, not because one resident called (911) and told them about it,” Harris told reporters. “All my (local police) commanders support it.”
Johnson’s administration has so far stayed mum — with both the public and with ShotSpotter parent company SoundThinking — on how the roughly 2,000 sound detecting devices will be taken offline. The task will fall to the company, Vice President Gary Bunyard told the City Council last week. That transition period the city and company agreed to in February “has not really been defined,” he said.
Tribune reporter Jake Sheridan contributed to this article.
