Chicago aldermen expressed mounting frustration Tuesday, May 12, over what they described as unexplained delays in procuring a new acoustic gunshot detection system and a records management system for the Chicago Police Department.
The Public Safety Committee chairman recessed the hearing until June 3 after city procurement officials declined to provide key details, citing an active bidding process.
The hearing was convened at the request of Alderman Peter Chico (10th), co-sponsor of a resolution calling for transparency into the procurements.
Gunshot detection technology was deactivated in September 2024, leaving the city without the system for roughly 20 months. A records management overhaul has been in discussion for about five years.
“Lives are at risk,” Chico said, noting that victims in his 10th Ward had lain in alleys for hours before being discovered. “We are going on 20 months. The residents of this city want something in place.”
Department of Procurement Services Commissioner Sharla Roberts, appearing via Zoom, confirmed that nine vendors responded to a request for proposals on gun violence detection technology, with proposals due in April 2025, and five vendors responded to an RFP for a records management system, with proposals due in December 2024.
Roberts declined to disclose the status of the evaluation committee, its membership, whether it had reached a consensus, or a timeline for a contract award, saying the procurement remained active and that disclosing such details could compromise the integrity of the process.
“An RFP of this size, complexity, and nature takes 18 to 24 months, and sometimes longer, to award,” Roberts said.
Alderman Brian Hopkins (2nd), the committee chairman, said that during the tenure of SoundThinking’s gunshot detection system, which operated from roughly 2018 to 2024, 71 percent of all verified gunshot incidents detected by the system did not have a corresponding 911 call.
Alderwoman Silvana Tabares (23rd) cited a shooting death in her ward on Thanksgiving night as evidence of the technology’s value — and the cost of its absence.
“On Thanksgiving night, there was a man shot and killed in my ward laying on the ground for 10 minutes because no one called 911,” Tabares said after the hearing. “If the technology were in place on that night, it would have alerted police where those gunshots were taking place — an exact location. The man laid on the ground bleeding for 10 minutes, was taken to the hospital and was pronounced dead. He was found because a woman saw him, yelled and called police. The technology saves lives and that is worth it.”
Tabares said she left the hearing without the answers she came for.
“The Department of Procurement gave us very general answers and didn’t give us a timeline as to when the city will have gunshot detection technology. We were left with no answers, no goal and no timeline about when we’re going to have this critical tool that saves lives and helps police,” she said.
Tabares also directed criticism at Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration for the absence of key officials.
The Chicago Police Department, the city’s chief information officer, the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, the deputy mayor for community safety, and other officials had been invited to the hearing but did not attend, she said.
Hopkins confirmed their absence, saying illness was cited by at least one or two individuals and that other conflicts were offered as explanations.
“The Chicago Police Department didn’t go — a whole bunch of other departments were invited and didn’t attend,” Tabares said. “I’m frustrated and disappointed because we’re going on almost two years without any gunshot detection technology. The Mayor’s decision to deactivate it was a reckless decision because we have been left with no substitution or other alternative. If we were going to deactivate ShotSpotter we should have had something else lined up.”
Alderman Marty Quinn (13th), in a post-hearing interview went further, accusing the mayor of deliberately slowing the procurement.
“I think what took place in the committee is the Council forcing the conversation on gunshot technology,” Quinn said. “The Council will continue to force that conversation because the Mayor is slow-walking this. It’s all predicated on his political beliefs.”
Quinn praised Chico’s testimony and Hopkins’ decision to recess rather than adjourn.
“What we witnessed in committee is Pete Chico, a former Chicago police officer, talk very articulately about the impact and use of the technology from a police perspective — we just can’t ignore that,” Quinn said. “Chairman Hopkins made a real good move by not adjourning the meeting and recessing the meeting to June 3 because the Mayor, in my opinion, told some commissioners not to show up, which is a dereliction of duty.”
Quinn noted the city has already set aside funding for the technology. “We do have $8 million allocated in our budget for the technology and we have to continue to push because that’s what the residents of the City of Chicago want,” he said.
Alderwoman Jeylu Gutierrez, whose 14th Ward encompasses the 8th Police District — which she described as the largest in the city — said response times in her district make the technology especially critical.
“The amount of time an officer would be able to respond to a call sometimes takes 30 to 45 minutes for them to arrive,” Gutierrez said during the hearing. “It’s really crucial for us in the 8th district to back the gunshot detection system.”
Gutierrez also questioned why the city did not begin the procurement process before deactivating the old system.
“If the system was going to be deactivated, why wasn’t an RFI or RFP made before?” she said. “Moving forward, if something else in Chicago needs to be removed or another company needs to come forward, how are we going to be proactive in starting this process before it’s gone? If not, it triggers a longer wait time.”
Roberts said the department began working with the Office of Public Safety Administration on a request for information in September 2024, before the existing contract expired, and that the RFI was formally issued in November 2024.
Chico, a former Chicago police officer, offered a firsthand account of how the technology works in practice. He described a scenario in which a shot is fired at 3 a.m. in an industrial area of his ward, with no witnesses and no 911 call. “How are the police ever gonna respond knowing an industrial area where that shot is or where that person is?” he said. “This will help direct the resources to the proper area.”
Hopkins noted that the committee’s frustration extended to the records management procurement as well.
Chico said officers currently file reports across roughly seven different systems, pulling them off the street and leaving beats unmanned. He asked witnesses for data on how much time officers spend off the street completing paperwork — a figure neither OPSA nor procurement officials had available.
Alderman Andre Vasquez (40th) raised concerns about whether contract language adequately addressed the risk of federal government access to surveillance data, citing reports that federal agencies had accessed license plate reader data and other surveillance technology.
Roberts said the Department of Innovation and Technology would be the appropriate source for that information. Hopkins said he would seek a policy and legal answers from the Department of Law within a few days.
Council President Pro Tempore, Alderman Samantha Nugent (39th) questioned whether the Chicago Police Department had representation on the evaluation committee for the gunshot detection procurement, given that officers would be the ones using the technology.
Roberts confirmed the evaluation committee included representatives from OPSA and the Department of Procurement Services but declined to say whether CPD was involved, citing the active procurement.
Hopkins recessed the committee to June 3 at 12:30 p.m., saying he hoped Chicago Police Department representatives would attend and that written answers to outstanding questions would be provided before the reconvened session.