Chicago News: Chicago Cab Fares Up 20%, Chicago’s School Board Election, ShotSpotter Replacement
The short version: Heart of Chicago Interviews reports City Council is hunting for a ShotSpotter replacement, a search that history shows almost always lands on more cameras and license plate readers.
Our Take
Credit to Heart of Chicago Interviews for keeping tabs on City Council business that most outlets bury under cab fares and school board drama. But the ShotSpotter replacement story is the one worth watching closely. When a city rips out one surveillance system, it rarely walks away from surveillance altogether — it just shops for the next vendor. And in city after city, that shopping trip ends with Flock Safety pitching a network of ALPR cameras as the modern, "smarter" alternative to gunshot detection.
That's the pattern DeFlock exists to track. ShotSpotter drew years of criticism over accuracy, cost, and how it was deployed disproportionately in Black and Brown neighborhoods. If Chicago swaps it for a citywide camera dragnet instead of fixing the underlying trust and accountability problems, residents just trade one flawed surveillance tool for another that logs where every car goes, all day, every day.
We'll be watching what the Council actually picks and whether Flock or a similar ALPR vendor is in the mix. In the meantime, check our camera map to see what's already watching your block, and use our take-action guide if you want to push back before city hall quietly signs another surveillance contract.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Heart of Chicago Interviews, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.