Advocates push for Shotspotter replacement

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A Chicago City Council Committee is talking about public safety and St. Sabina's Father Michael Pfleger is calling out city leaders.

He and others are upset that the city has not yet replaced the Shotspotter system, which detected gunshots and alerted police.

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Several advocates including those who have personally lost children to gun violence were clear that if there is no replacement for Shotspotter then the system needs to be brought back.

It's been two years since the gunshot detection system was dismantled in Chicago.

Last week, Mayor Brandon Johnson highlighted a UChicago study claiming that CPD responded four times faster to the city's most serious 911 calls in some neighborhoods after they ended the Shotspotter contract.

But advocates for the system, disagreed arguing there should not be a choice between public safety and politics.

"And so, the painful thing for families is, had somebody gotten there earlier, could that life have been saved?" Fr. Pfleger said.

"We have cameras and technology for red light cameras, we have it for school zone cameras, we have it for speed zone cameras, where people in our city get tickets every day in the mail because technology and camera has caught them and it costs them, so it must be some type of coincidence that one form of technology is making money, while this technology will cost money," youth leader Lamar Johnson said.

Father Michael Pfleger also made a comment that he no longer calls 911 when he hears gunshots, because there's no way to tell the exact location.

Wednesday morning, Mayor Johnson said his office has never stopped to process to find a replacement for Shotspotter.

"In every single neighborhood where that junk technology existed, violence has gone down and there has been a faster response from law enforcement and so the bottom line is this, the procurement process is ongoing, but what I'm not going to do, as mayor of Chicago, I'm not going to sell a bill of goods so that it can enrich the interests of corporations. I'm not going to do it."

City Council is meeting Wednesday is this topic is on the agenda.