On September 18th, City Council passed an Ordinance (on a 33 to 14 vote) requiring Mayor Johnson to support an extension of the ShotSpotter service.

• Regardless, at midnight on September 22nd, Mayor Johnson shut down ShotSpotter across all 12 police districts that had been relying upon ShotSpotter to help them respond swiftly and precisely to gun violence.  As a result, ShotSpotter is no longer allowed to alert the Chicago Police Department of gunfire.
• In the 21 months leading up to the mayor’s imposed decommission date (from January 1, 2023, through September 22, 2024), ShotSpotter alerted CPD to 2,703 victims of gun violence. This equates to an average of well over 4 victims per day for this period.*
• CPD’s average response time was ~2.4 minutes faster for events that were initiated exclusively by a ShotSpotter Alert, versus events that were initiated exclusively by a call to 911.*
• After the mayor’s decommissioning of ShotSpotter, in the month of October alone, there were 185 non-fatal victims of gun violence across the City of Chicago.
  • 145 (or 78%) of these victims were shot in what was a ShotSpotter coverage area.
  • However, as a result of the mayor’s decision to decommission ShotSpotter, CPD was unable to use this technology to render swifter aid to these 145 victims of gun violence. **
  • There were 47 homicides across the City of Chicago in the month of October.  37 (or 79%) of these homicides occurred in what was a ShotSpotter coverage area.
  • However, as a result of the mayor’s decision to decommission ShotSpotter, CPD was unable to use this technology to render swifter aid to these 37 victims of fatal gun violence. **

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*Source:  According to data obtained (via FOIA request) on 10/03/24 from the Chicago Police Department – Data Fulfillment and Analysis Section.
**Source:  According to data obtained from the Mayor’s Office of Violence Reduction Dashboard.