Aldermen advanced Monday an order to give the City Council final say over violence prevention funding efforts removed by the mayor, such as ShotSpotter.
Chicago police Cmdr. William Betancourt of the 10th District speaks with Ald. Monique Scott, 24th, on Oct. 29, 2023, talk at the scene of a shooting that wounded 15 people at 1258 S. Pulaski Rd. in North Lawndale. The ShotSpotter gunshot detection system could get another chance to stick around in Chicago as aldermen try to wrest control over the technology’s future from Mayor Brandon Johnson.
While detractors have criticized ShotSpotter as an instrument of over-policing, most aldermen Monday praised it as a tool that saves lives by getting first responders to shootings faster. They blasted Johnson’s decision to end the technology’s contract with the city as being made without input from communities plagued by violence.
Johnson announced a final 7-month extension for ShotSpotter in February that allows the technology to operate through the summer until late September. Amid speculation that the company behind the technology, SoundThinking, would reject the final extension Johnson had already made public, he days later announced an additional two-month “transition period.
Questions remain over whether the City Council can in fact compel the mayor to keep the city in a contract, as the ShotSpotter order would. Only the mayor, not the City Council, has the ability to enter into a contract on behalf of the city. Moore argued the move would be allowed.
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