CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - The City of Chicago is spending more money on the final nine months of its ShotSpotter contract than it did all of last year, according to a new report.
In a last-minute deal with parent company SoundThinking, the Johnson administration agreed to pay $8.6 million to extend the ShotSpotter contract through late September, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. That is 5% higher than what the city paid for the entire last year.
After the Democratic National Convention and the historically violent summer months, Mayor Johnson plans a two month decommissioning. The company and its supporters hope better data collection will persuade the city council to change that.
The mayor announced last week he's canceling the contract over ongoing concerns about its effectiveness and will direct funding to other safety initiatives.
Police Superintendent Larry Snelling is a fan of the gunshot detection system, but the city Inspector General found less than one in ten alerts yielded evidence of a crime.
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