Council Members Demand Answers After Public Safety Hearing Blocked by Procedural Maneuver


Council Members Demand Answers After Public Safety Hearing Blocked by Procedural Maneuver

Alders Release Unanswered Questions on Gunshot Detection Technology and Police Records System Delays


CHICAGO, IL – Recently, members of the Chicago City Council expressed frustration after a scheduled hearing on the City's delayed procurement of gunshot detection technology was effectively shut down through a parliamentary maneuver on an unrelated matter by allies of Mayor Brandon Johnson, preventing testimony and robbing community members of public discussion.


The hearing was expected to provide City Council members and Chicago residents with long-overdue answers about why the Johnson administration has failed to deliver a replacement gunshot detection system nearly two years after residents were promised one and why a new police records management system remains stalled despite months of completed negotiations.


Instead, the administration was able to avoid answering questions altogether.


"Chicagoans deserved answers today and they didn't get them," said Alderman Peter Chico. "Rather than publicly explain why these projects continue to face delays, the administration's allies chose to shut down the conversation entirely. Residents have every right to know why these systems are not in place and when they can expect them to be operational."


Council members planned to ask administration officials the following questions:

  • Why is the City now roughly two years into a procurement process for alternatives to ShotSpotter without a clear selection timeline, if replacing a critical emergency-response capability was a real priority?

  • Why did Mayor Johnson remove a gunfire-detection tool first, and ask procurement questions later?

  • What is the City’s answer to residents who ask: if someone is shot on my block and nobody calls 911, who should know the information and how are they supposed to find that information out?

  • What is the City’s current protocol for finding shooting victims who may be wounded but undiscovered when 911 is not called, especially in the absence of a gunshot detection system?

  • Who owns the procurement timeline for a replacement solution, what key milestones have been missed, and what is preventing the City from making a decision?

  • Did the Mayor knowingly accept a period in which Chicago would have neither ShotSpotter nor a replacement system? If so, who approved that operational risk to the safety of Chicago's residents?

  • Professor Robert Vargas’s analysis looked at response times for high-priority non-shooting calls, not police responses to shootings. Why did the Mayor characterize that as evidence supporting the decision to cancel ShotSpotter?

  • Did the Mayor oversell Robert Vargas’ descriptive, non-causal study to defend a decision he had already made for political reasons that fit his ideology?

  • Did CPD, OEMC, or any trauma-care stakeholders provide analysis of what would be lost operationally if officers no longer received gunshot detection alerts? If so, where is that analysis?

  • What alternative technologies has the City formally evaluated, such as gunshot detection systems, camera integration, license plate readers, drones, or other rapid-response tools, and where does that review stand today?

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