Mayor Johnson condemns ShotSpotter as 'a walkie-talkie on a pole' days before system shuts down

CHICAGO -- The gunshot detection system some City Council members are trying desperately to keep is little more than "a walkie-talkie on a pole," Mayor Brandon Johnson said Monday.

Johnson condemned the ShotSpotter system as a costly waste of tens of millions of taxpayer dollars - even as the stage was being set for a legislative showdown.

At Wednesday's Council meeting, proponents of the system that Johnson wants to take offline on Sunday will attempt to round up the 34 votes they need to prevent that from happening.

They're backing an ordinance that would give Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling the power to extend the existing ShotSpotter deal or enter into a new contract for similar technology.

That measure has been assigned to the Rules Committee, where legislation opposed by the mayor typically is sent to die. But its supporters want to invoke Rule 41 on Wednesday. That parliamentary maneuver allows an alderperson to call for immediate consideration of an ordinance if no action has been taken in committee.

On Monday, however, Ald. Michelle Harris (8th), the committee chair, planned to prevent that showdown by moving the ordinance to another committee. That would make it ineligible for Rule 41.

But the game of parliamentary ping-pong was blocked when the committee voted 30-to-17 against the move,

Johnson remains determined to get rid of ShotSpotter one way or another, as he had promised to do during his mayoral campaign.

"They said. ... it would reduce gun violence by 50% and that this was going to make neighborhoods safer.," Johnson said at an unrelated news conference Monday at Soldier Field. "We cannot afford the interest of corporations to play off the pain and the suffering of the people of Chicago."

The city spent "$100 million for a walkie-talkie on a pole, and the reason why they said we needed it was to reduce gun violence," he added. "It didn't do that."

City records actually peg the overall expenditure on ShotSpotter at $53 million so far.

RELATED | Supporters make last-ditch effort to save ShotSpotter in Chicago, opponents say change needed

The same debate now raging in Chicago already has played out in other cities, the mayor said. The mayor of Houston has called ShotSpotter "a gimmick," Johnson said.

"All over the country, people know that this corporate group has failed to deliver on the services that they were offering. And we're not gonna stand next to failure," the mayor said, referring to ShotSpotter's parent company, SoundThinking.

The Council already voted 34-14 to block Johnson from pulling the technology from any ward without a meeting of the public safety committee and approval by the full Council.

Johnson considered that order so nebulous, he didn't even bother to veto it. He has ignored it, arguing that he, alone, has the power to approve city contracts.

On Monday, Johnson accused Council members of looking out for "the interests of corporations who are trying to sell a product" - though Snelling, Johnson's pick to run CPD, also is among ShotSpotter's biggest cheerleaders.

Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), ShotSpotter's most outspoken Council advocate, said he had the votes in May and he'll have them again on Wednesday to keep Johnson from turning the system off on Sunday.

READ ALSO | CEO of company overseeing ShotSpotter sits down with ABC7 as clock ticks down on Chicago contract

And even if the Rule 41 vote falls short, Beale added, he has a backup plan: calling a special Council meeting for later Wednesday to consider a new ordinance authorizing a different city official - Annastasia Walker, executive director of the Office of Public Safety Administration - to negotiate a new contract.

"I'm sorry that he feels saving lives is compared to walkie-talkies on a stick," Beale said, ridiculing the mayor.

"He doesn't understand what this tool is. It's a campaign issue and he doesn't understand it. He's trying keep a campaign promise at the expense of lives."

SoundThinking CEO Ralph Clark made the same point during a meeting Monday with the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board. He glowingly described the company as "a purpose-driven company to make the world a better place."

With the clock ticking, SoundThinking has employed a full-court press - tapping disgraced Police Supt. Eddie Johnson as an expert consultant, enlisting a public relations firm and paying a high-powered lobbyist to work with Council members.

"The idea of walking away from Chicago without fighting for it - and potentially put close to 100 lives in the balance - is just immoral to me," Clark said Monday.

"We might not prevail," he said. "But we sure are going to fight for this, and it's fighting for the lives of those gunshot wound victims."

The gunshot detection system is in place in 12 of Chicago's 22 police districts. But anti-ShotSpotter sentiment gained steam after the police shooting of 13-year-old Adam Toledo in March 2021.

Johnson was so determined to stop using the technology that he announced the decision before finalizing an exit plan. That forced the city to pay a premium to negotiate a extension that maintained the system through the traditionally violent summer months and the Democratic National Convention, held in Chicago last month.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire - Copyright Chicago Sun-Times 2024.)