Chicago organizers will soon learn whether the city’s progressive mayor will honor a key campaign promise. Brandon Johnson campaigned on a pledge to end the city’s contract for SoundThinking’s gunshot detection service known as ShotSpotter. Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel entered into a $33 million contract with the company in 2018, saying the technology would help reduce crime. However studies have shown that the technology has had no impact on shooting mortality rates. While the service delivers no discernible benefit to the public, the drawbacks to ShotSpotter are clear. In the spring of 2021, a ShotSpotter alert resulted in the death of 13 year-old Adam Toledo, who was shot by a police officer.

According to a report from The MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University School of Law, 89 percent of ShotSpotter deployments in Chicago turned up no gun-related crime. The report indicated that between July 2019 and April 2021, there were more than 40,000 dead-end ShotSpotter deployments in Chicago, or more than 61 dead-end deployments per day.

In spite of ShotSpotter’s apparent failure to improve policing outcomes in Chicago, SoundThinking announced during an earnings call, late last year, that the company expects the contract will be renewed. SoundThinking also announced that Chicago would be piloting the use of another SoundThinking product: a law enforcement database and search engine called CrimeTracer. The company also stated that they expect the pilot program “will convert into a mid- to high 6-figure deal transaction in the latter half of 2024.”

For local activists who supported Brandon Johnson’s mayoral campaign, these developments are concerning. The contract expires in mid-February, and organizers are eager to hear from Johnson on the matter. I recently spoke with Navi Heer of the Stop ShotSpotter campaign about SoundThinking, ShotSpotter, and whether or not Johnson will keep his promise.

Kelly Hayes: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and the campaign?

Navi Heer: My name is Navi Heer. I’m an organizer with the Stop ShotSpotter campaign here in Chicago. For those who aren’t familiar, ShotSpotter is an audio surveillance system that blankets primarily the South and West sides of Chicago with microphones meant to detect gunshots, and it sends alerts of gunfire locations to CPD. But the system is easily fooled by other loud sounds, such as cars backfiring and firecrackers, and multiple studies and reports over the past years have demonstrated the harm of this technology and how it is deeply inaccurate.

The network of audio sensors blankets about 117 square miles of the city. That figure is from 2021, and we imagine that it’s grown since then. The company that sells this product is a for-profit company based in California named SoundThinking. We know that ShotSpotter is also being used in over 120 U.S. cities and internationally.

This campaign launched in the summer of 2021 after a young boy, Adam Toledo, was killed by CPD in Little Village by a CPD officer responding to a ShotSpotter alert. That’s what we really want to ground the campaign in. This technology has a real human impact and harms people. The campaign is a coalition of different grassroots organizations and individuals that are demanding that the mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, who is the ultimate decision maker, cancels the city’s contract with SoundThinking........

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