Mayor Brandon Johnson last year decommissioned the city’s Shotspotter gunshot detection system saying it was no more than a “walkie talkie on a stick.”
On Nov. 6, after pressure from aldermen during budget hearings to add a promised financial allocation for another gunshot detection system, $5 million was listed in a line item under the “software maintenance and licensing” category in Johnson’s proposed 2026 budget.
The overall Software Maintenance and Licensing appropriation within the Office of Public Safety Administration 2026 budget is $10,595,589, the fourth highest of the OPSA’s appropriations.
Ald. Marty Quinn (13th) became aware of the 2026 gunshot detection system allocation after seeking information about the revival of gunshot detection technology during the 2026 budget hearings.
“It was a question I asked Superintendent Larry Snelling last week (of Nov. 2) during the budget making process when he was before the council,” he said. “I hear from officers who live in the 13th Ward it’s a good tool. You can’t ignore when police officers are saying this is a good tool and we need it. I’m delighted we’re talking about ShotSpotter again. Frankly it’s been too long.”
Any connection between a mayoral push for reduction in human police force numbers and the revival of gunshot detection using technology to reduce worker numbers is not apparent, he said.
Still, the police 8th District, the city’s largest, supporting 250,000 residents, remains in need of assistance
“The 8th District has 249 blue shirt officers today, and that’s dangerously low,” he said. “This idea that we’re going to be pausing hiring doesn’t sit well with me. You can’t take someone off a bus stop and say you’re going to be a cop tomorrow. It [training] takes time.”
Quinn said the superintendent’s shop could not immediately provide him with the number of police officers eligible for 2026 retirement versus entrants into the Chicago Police Academy stating the data is necessary to maintain current police force numbers.
He continues to advocate for the conversion of the Midway Armory into a new police district facility after $3 million in funding was secured from the State of Illinois.
Combining the $6 million value of the armory and the $3 million in state funding is “a gift to the city,” Quinn said in a May 2025 story reported by the Southwest News-Herald.
He said he is unapologetic about supporting a new police district in the Midway Armory because 13th Ward residents pay property taxes on time.
On Jan. 13, 2025, Ald. Raymond Lopez (15th) demonstrated a gunshot detection system at Davis Square Park for a proposed pilot program with Shooter Detection Systems, an Alarm.com subsidiary. The company offered to test its outdoor sensor system free for six months at undisclosed Back of the Yards locations, but the Johnson administration did not acknowledge the offer.
The 2025 budget allocated $9 million for new gunshot detection technology. The 2026 budget reduces that to $5 million, prorated because the system is not expected to be operational immediately.
Lopez said Johnson’s timeline fails to protect residents during the first half of 2026.
“He has lied to our communities for nearly a year about his commitment to giving police more tools for their toolbox,” Lopez said.
Some aldermen oppose gunshot detection systems entirely. Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth (48th) told the Chicago Tribune Nov. 6 that her residents favor crime-solving technology over gunshot detection, wanting actual police officers “on the street.”
Elmwood Park, a small west-central suburb that shares two of its borders with the City of Chicago, uses ShotSpotter technology.
Village President Skip Saviano said Elmwood Park had previous experience with ShotSpotter when Chicago’s 25th and 16th police districts allowed it to utilize their gunshot technology on those boundaries.
“We found it to be very, very beneficial for us because most of our crime that occurs in [Elmwood Park] are on our borders like Harlem Ave., Belmont Ave. and North Ave.; not so much inside the town,” he said. “We decided that when they shut theirs off, we’d get it and right away we saw good results. We have caught people who were shooting guns and arrested them. I think they’re presently still in jail.”
Elmwood Park’s network of acoustic sensors’ detection ability reaches into the city in both an easterly and northern direction almost two miles, Saviano added.
He said ShotSpotter does not just assist with offender apprehension but plays a safety role by increasing emergency medical attention response times.
“It’s a known fact that [with] a lot of gunshot reports, people don’t call 911,” Saviano stated. “They’ll hear it or they don’t want to get involved and this technology allows us to get there instantly. We’re not a big town so we can be there very, very quickly. It works. It definitely works.”
To identify alternative crime fighting tool options, the city issued a press release in September 2024 seeking Requests for Information (RFIs). The press release stated the city also communicated with other urban areas like Seattle to learn about their strategies.
Seattle currently employs Realtime Crime Center technology that integrates multiple data streams to help law enforcement respond more quickly and efficiently to emergency situations.
Seattle’s RTCC and CCTV cameras have been expanded to 24-hour surveillance, according to a September 2025 report by KUOW, Seattle’s NPR station.
However, the technology raises privacy concerns in high-crime surveillance areas.
“In the modern age what we’re seeing is a CCTV network is no longer an array of cameras that the government is installing to be checked later on,” said Beryl Lipton, Senior Investigative Researcher, Electronic Frontier Foundation. “It’s actually directly connected to law enforcement and is often available for them to access in real time.”
EFF is a non-profit organization that protects digital rights via litigation, legal defense, research and education.
The status of Brandon’s request for proposals was not known as of last week.
Proposals from 15 possible bidders are being kept under wraps by Dan Casey, Managing Deputy Director, Public Safety IT for the City of Chicago, due to an existing active bid, Quinn said.