What next after ShotSpotter?
No matter who wins the high-stakes battle over the future of Chicago’s gunshot detection technology, the political and legal battle will not be decided before ShotSpotter is turned off at midnight Sunday.
Lost in the debate is what happens after the system goes dark. How will the technology centers in 12 of the 22 police districts where crime is highest — and where residents are most reluctant to call 911 — continue to operate without ShotSpotter?
That’s the question most troubling Anthony Driver Jr., president of the Community Commission on Public Safety and Accountability, Chicago’s civilian police oversight panel, on the day after the City Council showdown.
“What do we do when this goes off? How do we tell residents to make sure that you call 911 for people who need EMS services? Upward of 80%` in many communities, people don’t call 911 when there is a shooting," Driver told the Sun-Times.
"I am worried about if somebody gets shot and needs aid and they’re unable to get it because no one dials 911."
Driver’s concerns stem from the time he has spent in the Chicago Police Department's Strategic Decision Support Centers. He knows how the technology works and how interdependent the costly equipment is.
“You have POD cameras. You have the license plate readers. You have ShotSpotter. … The whole system works together,” Driver said.
“I have no idea what happens when you turn off one leg of that. Do the other two function as well?"
Driver offered one example of how a ShotSpotter alert can help police make the right call.
"Somebody fires shots. A car flees. A person in the room sees it because a ShotSpotter pointed in a direction that the car is going. They don’t send the police to the scene. They send the police to the direction that the car sped off," Driver said.
That's good, he noted, since police want to catch the perpetrators fleeing the scene — even if, he added, "that is going to show up in the data as 'no evidence of a gun crime.'"
One day after Mayor Brandon Johnson vowed to veto the City Council’s second attempt to extend the ShotSpotter contract, an override attempt followed by a court fight between the executive and legislative branches of city government seemed almost inevitable.
There was no veto by late Thursday afternoon, though the mayor is widely expected to wait until after the system shuts down Sunday. Sources tell the Sun-Times as soon as Johnson does veto the ordinance, council members seeking to keep the system will head to court to force the mayor's hand.
It's all likely to take weeks, if not months, to resolve.
Which begs the question: How exactly will “decommissioning" through November work?
During a news conference after Wednesday’s stormy City Council meeting, Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson-Lowry could not explain that wind-down period, saying it’s still being worked out with only days to go before the midnight Sunday deadline.
Johnson and Richardson-Lowry denied ShotSpotter’s claim there have been no transition talks.
“It is inaccurate to say there have been no discussions because I’ve been in them," Richardson-Lowry said.
"With respect to the process of the demobilization, which is how it’s referenced in the contract, there is a phasing that is associated with that, and that has to be worked out in detail with the contract provider. ”
SoundThinking issued a statement later Thursday, saying it was grateful for the support of the City Council and expressing hope "that a resolution to extend the lifesaving gunshot detection technology can be found.”
But given Johnson's pending veto, the statement continued, at midnight Sunday, "SoundThinking will cease sending the Chicago Police Department ShotSpotter real-time gunshot alerts." On Monday, "SoundThinking will begin dismantling ShotSpotter infrastructure in Chicago coverage areas. During the subsequent 60-day Demobilization Period, SoundThinking will continue to work with CPD to ensure a smooth demobilization, including access to historical gun crime data and analytics tools."
The lack of detail about the transition keeps Driver up at night.
“Maybe this goes amazing. Maybe it goes terrible. I have no idea what’s going to happen. ... I wish I knew what our game plan is. ... Whatever side you fall on, what do we do in the meantime?” Driver asked.
“This is a system that the second-largest police department in the country has objectively been dependent on for the better part of a decade. ... The lights are going off on Sunday. … What do we do on Monday? When are we getting together to talk about that? Because that’s what I care about. Victims.”
Johnson has condemned ShotSpotter as a costly waste and accused SoundThinking of using “scare tactics.”
Driver said such claims insult the intelligence of communities like his.
“Yeah, we are scared. I live in a community where I have to be scared. … If my mom doesn’t text me at 10 p.m. to let me know she’s home safely, I’m gonna freak out. Why? Because I do live in a community where these things happen. I was robbed right in front of my building,” Driver said.
“Don’t play like my community is stupid. Don’t act like we’re not intelligent enough to make decisions for ourselves. ”
No update on COPA kerfuffle
The civilian oversight commission is at the center of another police-related controversy. This one is about alleged anti-police bias and retaliation at the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the agency charged with investigating the most serious allegations of police wrongdoing.
Driver was tight-lipped about that. His commission has met privately with 16 present and former COPA employees who claim Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten is biased against police and retaliating against whistleblowers, including one of the two top deputies she fired who has sued COPA and the city.
"Our commission is charged with ... [making] sure that organization is functioning in a way that’s effective and helpful to our accountability system. We’re in the process of doing that,” Driver said.
“We’re definitely not going to be rash about this. We’re not going to litigate this in the media. ... We’re going to make sure that we do this thing right. We’re going to make sure that not only officers have due process but so does Chief Administrator Kersten. I know there are officers right now who believe that they’re not getting a fair shake, and those folks need to be heard. They deserve to have confidence in this system, and their community members who feel the same deserve those same things. It’s our job to help deliver for them. ”