Stop shotspotter
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Even DeBlasio was a fan
“Today, we are rolling out cutting edge technology to make the city safer, to make our neighborhoods safer, to keep our officers safer,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio, who appeared with William J. Bratton, the police commissioner, to announce the initiative. “This gunshot detection system is going to do a world of good in terms of going after the bad guys.”
Both the mayor and Mr. Bratton stressed that ShotSpotter would help the relationship between the police and the communities where they work while also helping officers respond more quickly to shootings. -
National Review called (Let's go) Brandon "America's Most Tragically Stupid Mayor."
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https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2024/02/16/shotspotter-not-shutting-down-friday
The Chicago Police Department will keep its access to the controversial ShotSpotter gunshot detection system after a last-minute deal Friday — hours before the contract was set to expire.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office hammered out a renewal to the nearly $49 million contract with ShotSpotter’s parent company, SoundThinking, to allow the police department to continue using the technology through Sept. 22, according to statements from the company and mayor's office. The agreement also includes a two-month "transition period" after that date.
The police department will work to "revamp operations," enact new training and "further develop response models to gun violence that ultimately reduce shootings," before the contract ends in September, the mayor's office said. Also before the new deadline, the department will issue recommendations after it works with violence prevention organizations and other stakeholders to assess "various tools, data and programs."
The frantic negotiations between the city and company came after Johnson’s office announced Tuesday that he was keeping his campaign promise to cut the cord on ShotSpotter but keep it in place until September — after the city's historically violent summer and the Democratic National Convention. But Johnson’s administration hadn’t yet struck a deal to keep ShotSpotter past Friday.
OTOH:
ShotSpotter has previously received poor reviews, including one in May 2021 by the MacArthur Justice Center at the Northwestern School of Law which found that nearly 86% of police deployments to alerts of gunfire prompted no formal reports of any crime.
Another report that August by the city’s Office of the Inspector General concluded the technology rarely leads to investigatory stops or evidence of gun crimes.
Last week, the Sun-Times reported the Cook County state’s attorney’s office had conducted a review of ShotSpotter that found the technology had a minimal effect on prosecuting gun violence cases.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@George-K said in Stop shotspotter:
ShotSpotter has previously received poor reviews, including one in May 2021 by the MacArthur Justice Center at the Northwestern School of Law which found that nearly 86% of police deployments to alerts of gunfire prompted no formal reports of any crime.
My guessing is that the neighborhoods where they have the gunshots, many people do not want to talk or are afraid to talk, so the police cannot find out anything.
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So weird he’s extending it before canceling it. From the previous article explaining why:
The police department will work to "revamp operations," enact new training and "further develop response models to gun violence that ultimately reduce shootings," before the contract ends in September, the mayor's office said. Also before the new deadline, the department will issue recommendations after it works with violence prevention organizations and other stakeholders to assess "various tools, data and programs."
LOL can you imagine if the recommended data and tools is, oh I don’t know, to use SHOTSPOTTER?
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As I linked a while ago, there's some controversy as to how effective ShotSpotter is. False alarms may be diverting police resources from actual threats.
OTOH, the fact that (Let's Go!) Brandon Johnson is renewing the contract only until after the Democrats' convention in Chicago smacks me as being more than a bit cynical.
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"My pronouns are FA/FO." - Mik, 2024
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Yup, we have a bit of that kind of thing in my town. "Did you know that there's a disproportionate number of traffic stops involving minorities relative to the population of our town??"
Yeah, but did you know that 87% of the crime comes from the community directly to the east - so maybe that accounts for the "disproportionate number" that you just referenced.
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Brandon Johnson kills a technology that detects shootings and saves lives.
ShotSpotter uses acoustic technology to detect gunfire and dispatches law enforcement to scenes of violence before 911 calls come in. Chicago has deployed the technology since 2012, mainly in its south and west sides. The University of Chicago Crime Lab found it likely saves about 85 lives a year.
The system has detected more than 200,000 gun shots in the 13 months ending in August. Even Mr. Johnson must think the technology works since in February he extended the contract through the summer, which is when gun violence typically peaks and the city hosted the Democratic National Convention.
But last week he said he’d let the ShotSpotter contract expire, calling it a waste of money. He may be taking his cues from Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who charged in May that ShotSpotter perpetuates “over-policing and unjustified surveillance” in minority neighborhoods.
The City Council disagreed and voted 33-14 to give Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling the power to override the mayor’s office. “If one life is saved with gunshot detection technology, then it is absolutely worth having,” Alderman Ray Lopez said.
Alderman Brian Hopkins, chair of the council’s public safety committee, is threatening to go to court to keep ShotSpotter. It’s tempting to say the people of Chicago are getting the progressive rule they voted for, but no one deserves this mayor of criminal mayhem.
