Video: Joining “Chicago Tonight” are Alds. William Hall (6th Ward) and Peter Chico (10th Ward). (Produced by Sean Keenehan)

With less than a week until Chicago’s controversial gunshot detection system is set to be turned off, critics of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s decision to scrap ShotSpotter will once again attempt to force him to keep the system.

Ald. David Moore (17th Ward), who has led the fight to keep ShotSpotter operational after Sunday, is poised to use a parliamentary maneuver during Wednesday’s Chicago City Council meeting to force a vote on an ordinance designed to give Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling the power to bypass the mayor’s office and directly ink a contract with SoundThinking, the firm that operates the system.

Snelling has praised ShotSpotter as an important tool, and touted its ability to speed police to victims of gun violence in cases where there is no corresponding 911 call. The system is not used to dispatch paramedics.

Thirty-four members of the City Council would have to vote at the meeting set to start at 10 a.m. Wednesday to consider the ordinance before an up-and-down vote could take place. 

If that fails, seven other City Council members called a special meeting for 2 p.m. that could give them a chance to pass a similar ordinance that would empower the head of the Office of Public Safety Administration to ink a contract for a gunshot detection system. That department handles the administrative duties of the police, fire and emergency communications departments.

The last-minute maneuvering is an indication that an order passed in May that called for a City Council vote before ShotSpotter is removed from any Chicago ward was unenforceable. Johnson ignored that order, without repercussion.

Similar questions surround the legality of both ordinances that could get a vote Wednesday.

At an unrelated news conference on Monday, Johnson refused to reverse course. Johnson promised during the 2023 campaign to scrap the system, which he said leads to the overpolicing of neighborhoods home to a majority of Black and Latino Chicagoans.

Johnson has repeatedly said there is “clear evidence (ShotSpotter) is unreliable and overly susceptible to human error.” He blamed the system for the death of 13-year-old Adam Toledo, who was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer responding to an alert from the system in March 2021.

Calling the ShotSpotter technology little more than a “walkie talkie on a pole,” Johnson said Monday that SoundThinking did not live up to promises that the system would reduce gun violence and said critics of his decision to scrap it are doing the work of “corporate interests” determined to sell a product.

By the contract’s final day, Chicago taxpayers will have paid more than $53 million since 2018 for ShotSpotter, according to city records. It was unclear Monday why Johnson pegged the total cost of the system at $100 million in his comments to the news media.

There is no other firm that offers a similar system. It is unclear how much it would cost Chicago taxpayers to keep the system operational after Sunday. 

When Johnson announced he would not extend the city’s contract with ShotSpotter, he announced a two-month transition period would take place from Sunday until Nov. 22. SoundThinking Vice President Gary Bunyard told a City Council committee Sept. 9 it is not clear what would take place during that period, but that the system would be turned off Sunday.

It will take some time for the firm to remove the more than 2,000 sensors that dot the city’s West and South sides, Bunyard said.

Efforts to keep ShotSpotter would also circumvent the city’s normal procurement and contracting process, which is designed to prevent fraud, waste and abuse. 

The City Council has the power to earmark money in the city budget for a particular purpose — such as a gunshot detection system — and to direct city staff to solicit bids to perform that work.

City and state laws require Chicago officials to award contracts to the lowest bidder who can perform the work requested by the city at the standards set by officials after that process, which typically takes months.

The superintendent of police and other department heads do not have the power to enter into contracts that do not follow those procedures and that bypass the city’s procurement department under the city’s normal rules. They also report to Johnson, who can fire them for any reason.

The showdown set for Wednesday is the latest inflection point in the monthslong debate over whether ShotSpotter is an irreplaceable tool in the fight against gun violence on Chicago’s West and South sides or a waste of taxpayer funds that actually makes Black and Latino Chicagoans less safe.

The issue has split two critical parts of Johnson’s political base: progressive Chicagoans who want to see the system scrapped and Black Chicagoans demanding city officials do everything possible to reduce persistent levels of violence.

Ald. Peter Chico (10th Ward), a former Chicago police officer, told WTTW News’ “Chicago Tonight” program on Monday that the system is a crucial tool for the police. It is worth any amount of money to save a single life, Chico said.

Those arguments have been buoyed by new data from the Chicago Police Department that found ShotSpotter identified 99.6% of the nearly 30,000 alerts issued between January and August correctly as gunfire.

In addition, police responded 2.5 minutes faster to gunshot reports after a ShotSpotter alert, according to the data that has not been independently verified. In all, police provided medical aid to 143 gunshot victims after ShotSpotter alerts, including seven people who were injured but 911 was not notified.

However, Inspector General Deborah Witzburg released an audit in August 2021 that found that fewer than one in 10 ShotSpotter alerts resulted in evidence of a gun-related criminal offense being found.

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx released a report in February that found the system rarely led to prosecutions for gun crimes.

Ald. William Hall (6th Ward) told “Chicago Tonight” the system is not effective and the city’s resources are better spent addressing the root causes of crime and violence.

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]