ShotSpotter in the Chicago City Council

The gunshot detection system (ShotSpotter, now SoundThinking): its contract, the push to keep it by ward, and the hearings.

Results for ShotSpotter: 2 key roll calls, 2 more matching legislation, and 25 documents. Search again or refine, or ask a question about it on Research.

Roll calls

Legislation

• Submission of public question by referendum to Chicago voters at November 3, 2026 general election on whether Chicago should… (R2026-0025451, Resolution): Final, introduced May 20, 2026, sponsor Quinn, Marty
• Amendment of Annual Appropriation Ordinance for Year 2025 regarding funding for acoustic gunshot detection technology (O2024-0013916, Ordinance): In Committee, introduced Dec 2, 2024, sponsor Lopez, Raymond A.

Documents

Passages from ordinances, agreements, agendas, transcripts and campaign money briefs that best match "ShotSpotter gunshot detection SoundThinking contract", by meaning rather than exact words.

• Committee on Public Safety meeting, 2026-06-09 (video transcript), Transcript, Jun 9, 2026: "calls that led my team at the Justice Project to focus on priority one calls in our study on Chicago after ShotSpotter. When the city turned off the microphones, many were rightfully concerned that homicide would climb and police would be slower to reach people in danger. And these concerns are what my co-authors and I…"
• Committee on Public Safety meeting, 2024-09-09 (video transcript), Transcript, Sep 9, 2024: "Department to capitalize on camera technology, LPR technology. So that if a gun shot incident is detected, Cameras in that immediate area can be activated pan tilt Zoom. If there's no cameras in the immediate area of the crime then cameras that may or license plate readers, that may be able to detect cars, fleeing the…"
• Committee on Budget and Government Operations meeting, 2025-09-10 (video transcript), Transcript, Sep 10, 2025: "Absolutely. Okay. Um, I know, yeah, I guess it would be y'all. Uh, and if it wasn't asked already, uh, when Shot Spotter was, the contract was ended, there was a whole conversation related to technology and there being some level of study of what could be done next. I think a number of us who had concerns about ShotSpo…"
• Superintendent of Police directed to enter into and execute new contract or contract extension or renewal for acoustic… (O2024-0011032), Legislation, Sep 18, 2024: "ORDINANCE BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CHICAGO: **Acoustic Technology Services** **SECTION 1.** The Superintendent of Police, in consultation with the Corporation counsel as to the form and legality, shall negotiate, enter into, and execute a contract extension, renewal, or new contract for acousti…" Document
• Committee on Budget and Government Operations meeting, 2025-11-06 (video transcript), Transcript, Nov 6, 2025: "acoustic gunshot recognition technology. Uh, I remember at the mid-year hearing, you seemed to indicate it was gonna take 18 months to get this back online. And then, uh, uh, yesterday managing director, uh, uh, Casey estimated hopefully early 26. What, what changed, uh, what changed in that time? So, just to clarify,…"
• City Council meeting, 2024-09-18, Notice, Sep 18, 2024: "ice and the Corporation Counsel as to the form and legality, shall negotiate, enter into, and execute a contract extension, renewal, or new contract for acoustic gunshot detection technology services. Such contract shall: (1) be for a term of not less than 24 months; (2) ensure that there is no interruption to current…" Document
• City Council meeting, 2024-10-09, Notice, Oct 9, 2024: "ice and the Corporation Counsel as to the form and legality, shall negotiate, enter into, and execute a contract extension, renewal, or new contract for acoustic gunshot detection technology services. Such contract shall: (1) be for a term of not less than 24 months; (2) ensure that there is no interruption to current…" Document
• Call on Mayor Brandon Johnson to remedy by Ward choice whether to remove Sound Thinking/ShotSpotter surveillance… (SOr2024-0007759), Legislation, May 22, 2024: "ct. 2. During the remaining months of SoundThinking/ShotSpotter, the Chicago Police Department collect data showing the quantity of ShotSpotter alerts that have no corresponding call to 911; and, 3. During the remaining months of SoundThinking/ShotSpotter, the Chicago Police Department collect data showing the quantity…" Document
• Committee on Budget and Government Operations meeting, 2025-09-10 (video transcript), Transcript, Sep 10, 2025: "as we're thinking through that, obviously you can't share a process that that is clearly a priority or criteria to think about who else can pull that information at other levels of government. 'cause we could be setting ourselves up for a scarier situation. And so thank you. It's all here. It's all got, thank you. Okay…"
• Committee on Public Safety meeting, 2026-05-12 (video transcript), Transcript, May 12, 2026: "space, and it's difficult in the middle of the night when it's dark out to get to that body to render aid. So those are some of the things I've seen in my 10 plus years in the police department on why this technology is needed. Yeah. Thank you, Alderman Chico, for sharing that. And I would also point out that during th…"
• Committee on Public Safety meeting, 2024-09-09 (video transcript), Transcript, Sep 9, 2024: "1 thing, I noticed uh after numerous attempts to get information on shot, spotter the agreement with the city of Chicago. Um, And that agreement, it provides that the vendor. Shall reimburse the city for any? I'll call it murder. Def kills that occur, as a result of using their Technologies, right? In the contract city…"
• Committee on Contracting Oversight and Equity meeting, 2026-10-20 (video transcript), Transcript, Oct 20, 2026: "I would appreciate it my colleagues if y'all could give me a break and let me my colleagues, if y'all could give me a break and let me finish reading this letter into records. They allowed the city to access performance under real-world condition, independently evaluating vendor's claim, identifying operational limitat…"
• City Council meeting, 2024-05-22 (video transcript), Transcript, May 22, 2024: "where CPD claims that shot Spotter saved a life, had no corresponding call. Phone calls provided a more precise location than those shot spotter detections. And so I ask, why are we paying for this expensive and inaccurate technology when communities are already doing the work? City Council needs to interrogate sound t…"
• Joint Committee: Public Safety; Police and Fire meeting, 2024-09-26 (video transcript), Transcript, Sep 26, 2024: "stop? Sending emails? I didn't make all our providers come from that. So, I think that that's just something that in the context of things chairman, we just have to be mindful of that. Thank you. Okay. Can I, can I just say, 1 1, Point, briefly? I, I, I never made the argument that we should somehow abandon Partnership…"
• City Council meeting, 2024-09-18 (video transcript), Transcript, Sep 18, 2024: "contract if they could. If they're so easy to do that, why didn't they start off at 48% of what they were charging us? 'cause they want to keep the money coming. So I have a bit of an issue with that. I've always said from the beginning, we wanted to get the best technology and the best deal for the city. 'cause that i…"
• City Council meeting, 2024-09-18 (video transcript), Transcript, Sep 18, 2024: "I think it is within the preview of the executive to decide on how to sign contracts. That is not the preview of the Chicago Police Department, not the superintendent. This follows within the executive. So I wanna make sure that this, again, is not weaponized when we talk about the due process and the donning process h…"
• City Council meeting, 2024-09-18 (video transcript), Transcript, Sep 18, 2024: "And technology is something that I think we need to utilize more on government. And so when I was making a decision around shot Spotter, uh, when it first came on board and people were talking about the negativity around it, I went to my district in 25th district, um, and they have, we have shot spotter there. And I as…"
• Committee on Public Safety meeting, 2024-09-09 (video transcript), Transcript, Sep 9, 2024: "shot spotter. Don't even have it in their wards. Don't even have it. So it's just it's this is just, this is upsetting my soul that we are fighting for shot spotter today. so, The 15th District. Which is the District of. The mayor of city of Chicago. Is the worst District in the city of Chicago for gunshots. But luckil…"
• Joint Committee: Public Safety; Police and Fire meeting, 2024-09-26 (video transcript), Transcript, Sep 26, 2024: "have here that I can give you that call shot. Spotter a predictive crime strategy, technology that will reduce crime. And allow CPD officers to predict in fact, where crime is committed in the city of Chicago. That is not the function of shot Spotter. And so it's not a narrative that we're creating, I mean, it's in the…"
• Committee on Budget and Government Operations meeting, 2025-11-05 (video transcript), Transcript, Nov 5, 2025: "links multiple shooting incidents together. So, that technology, that platform is in our partnership with the ATF. And being able to tie those investigations together, we're able to focus on the most prolific offenders that are out there committing these shootings and these murders. And then we're able to sit around th…"
• Committee on Public Safety meeting, 2026-06-09 (video transcript), Transcript, Jun 9, 2026: "It's okay. We use a reference contract for gun violence detection. Was that the name of it, Courtney? Hold on. I think that if we have clear measures of what is it that we're looking for, are we looking to reduce violence? Are we looking to improve police response time? What are we looking to do with this? I am confuse…"
• Committee on Budget and Government Operations meeting, 2024-11-12 (video transcript), Transcript, Nov 12, 2024: "potential ideas that, you know, are SID with the RFI. So we are gonna have to go through all that data and decide, okay, which ones are gonna be the best. Um, but we do have funding set aside for next year, right? So as soon as we determine which are gonna be the best functions, what are gonna be the best technology to…"
• City Council meeting, 2024-05-22 (video transcript), Transcript, May 22, 2024: "If any of us were in a position where we got shot and we were on a corner somewhere bleeding out, I think we'd wanna know that everything possible was being done, which does require technology. So when we talk to some of our colleagues, especially those where they're seeing the most amount of gun violence and they're s…"
• Committee on Budget and Government Operations meeting, 2024-11-15 (video transcript), Transcript, Nov 15, 2024: "a report like that is as difficult as everything is right now. So we do need to work on getting that RMS system in place. Once we can get that in place, we will see a reduction in the amount of time that officers are spending inside of a station. Great. And Dan, we may have asked this question the other day with OAMC,…"
• Committee on Public Safety meeting, 2026-06-09 (video transcript), Transcript, Jun 9, 2026: "alerts, and data on arrests connected to ShotSpotter. A data journalist named Matt Chapman read the study closely and noticed something. The researchers used data that Sound Thinking had said it did not maintain, and data that was missing from the ShotSpotter dashboard the company shared with the public. Next slide. So…"

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