Some aldermen question requirements from mayor's office to replace ShotSpotter technology

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Technology companies interested in replacing ShotSpotter in Chicago have been given until Nov. 1 to submit their proposals, but the city's requirements for a new contract are raising questions with some aldermen.

Some city council members are wondering if Mayor Brandon Johnson actually wants to replace ShotSpotter or if it's just a formality the city is going through now that the controversial system has been shut down.

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The mayor's supporters say those questions are off base.

As ShotSpotter technology is taken down from poles and buildings throughout the city, the mayor's office has put out a Request for Information, or RFI, from other companies who might provide "outdoor law enforcement response technology that covers the entire 235 square miles of the City of Chicago."

The requirements include many things ShotSpotter used to do including helping police detect violent crime, expediting response time and improving evidence-gathering opportunities. But since the companies' sensors won't work downtown due to tall buildings causing an echo factor, some city council members see the RFI language as intentionally written to exclude ShotSpotter-like technology.

"We feel that this is something they created that makes it almost impossible to bring in any more technology like this into the system, or into the city I should say. It's, this is not done with good intention. It's not done with our residents in mind," said 41st Ward Ald. Anthony Napolitano.

Mayor Johnson has called ShotSpotter overpriced walkie-talkies on a stick. One ally defended the RFI as protecting Chicagoans from what he called flawed technology.

READ MORE: Some aldermen warn ShotSpotter veto could blow up budget negotiations between mayor, city council

"And so if we are going to spend taxpayer dollars, we need to spend it on technology that works, and we need to spend that on technology that can work all across the city of Chicago," said 35th Ward Ald. Carlos Ramirez Rosa.

But some question why, if the mayor really wanted to replace ShotSpotter, did he not start the process when he first canceled the contract in February.

"This whole time, we could have had other requests for information out there for different companies saying, 'Hey, we could do this technology. We could do this as well at a different price or different style,' and they didn't do that," Napolitano said. "So it just means they had no intention of attending to our citizens."

"So, I know that the, you know, Mayor has been thinking through what are the options that the city has for quite some time. But you know, the levers of government take time to move," said Ramirez Rosa.

If no companies meet the proposal requirements for new technology, the money saved by not renewing ShotSpotter would go back into the police department budget.