CHICAGO DETOX | SHOT SPOTTER RELOADED | WILL THEY RENEW THE CONTRACT?? | HOW MUCH DO THEY SPEND??

Our Take

Credit to Chicago Detox for digging into the ShotSpotter (now SoundThinking) contract saga, a fight that's dragged on for years amid mixed evidence on whether the acoustic gunshot-detection system actually reduces gun violence or just floods officers into Black and Brown neighborhoods for false alarms. The video's focus on dollars and cents matters because that's exactly the kind of scrutiny surveillance contracts rarely get until a local outlet forces the question.

ShotSpotter and Flock's ALPR network are cut from the same cloth: vendors sell cities on crime-fighting promises, lock in multi-year contracts, and quietly expand coverage while independent audits struggle to prove real public-safety gains. Chicago's own inspector general has raised doubts about ShotSpotter's value, yet the technology persists because renewal decisions happen behind closed doors with little public input, the same pattern we see when cities quietly add license plate cameras block by block.

Whether it's gunshot sensors or plate readers, the throughline is the same: taxpayer money funding surveillance infrastructure with little transparency about cost, accuracy, or who's actually being watched. If you want to see how far ALPR cameras have spread in your own city, check our camera map, and if you're ready to push back on unaccountable surveillance spending, our take-action page has next steps.