City Defends Quiet Extension Of Contract For ShotSpotter Gunfire Detection Technology
The short version: CBS Chicago exposes City Hall quietly extending its ShotSpotter gunfire-detection contract despite years of criticism over accuracy, cost, and secrecy.
Our Take
Credit to CBS Chicago for catching city officials trying to slide a ShotSpotter renewal through without much public debate. This is a familiar playbook: announce surveillance expansions or extensions on a Friday afternoon, hope nobody notices, and defend the deal only after reporters start asking questions. ShotSpotter has been dogged for years by independent studies and public defenders questioning its accuracy and the way it's been used to justify aggressive police stops in Black and Brown neighborhoods, so "quiet" is doing a lot of work in that headline.
What makes this bigger than one city contract is the pattern. ShotSpotter, Flock, and similar vendors thrive on exactly this kind of low-visibility procurement — deals renewed or expanded through budget line items instead of open hearings, with city councils treating public safety tech as a rubber-stamp issue rather than a civil liberties one. When officials have to "defend" a contract after the fact instead of justifying it before signing, that's a sign the oversight process failed the public, not just a PR problem.
Chicago residents deserve to know what's being deployed in their neighborhoods and why, the same way we push for transparency around license plate readers. Check our camera map to see what's already tracking your area, and if you want to push back on secretive surveillance contracts in your own city, our take-action page has the tools to start.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of CBS Chicago, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.