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Eugene

(62,646 posts)
Sun Jul 16, 2023, 08:02 PM Jul 2023

Progressives press Chicago mayor over pledge to end controversial policing tool ShotSpotter

Source: The Guardian

Progressives press Chicago mayor over pledge to end controversial policing tool

Brandon Johnson vowed to drop controversial gunshot detection system but approved a $10m payment for contractor ShotSpotter

Leigh Giangreco in Chicago
Sun 16 Jul 2023 15.43 BST

Progressives have vowed to hold the new Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson, to his campaign pledge that as part of crime-control efforts in the city he will break with the controversial gunshot detection contractor ShotSpotter.

Johnson gave the keynote speech this week at Netroots, the largest annual gathering of progressives in the country, taking place in Chicago, and amplified his campaign talk about a wider approach to safer streets.

“Many people will make you believe that the only way in which you can have safe communities is by simply engaging in politics of old, by believing that the only answer to public safety is policing. That’s a failed strategy,” he told the gathering.

However the progressive Democrat did not repeat his campaign trail commitments to pull the plug on ShotSpotter when the city’s current contract is up next year. For more than a decade, Chicago has used the company’s nearly 30-year-old gunshot detection system, deployed in high-crime areas and designed to direct police to shootings, but that in recent years has faced intense criticism for its methodology and the impact of its technology on communities of color.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/16/chicago-mayor-brandon-johnson-anti-crime-promise

No-registration link: https://archive.li/sGO6b

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Progressives press Chicago mayor over pledge to end controversial policing tool ShotSpotter (Original Post) Eugene Jul 2023 OP
You can't get rid of ShotSpotter without more unsolved murders. Frasier Balzov Jul 2023 #1
While ShotSpotter *claims* 97 percent accuracy, that false positive rate Eugene Jul 2023 #2
Kind of like the NSA collecting "metadata". discntnt_irny_srcsm Jul 2023 #3
Well the mayor held his ground Jk23 Sep 19 #4

Frasier Balzov

(3,480 posts)
1. You can't get rid of ShotSpotter without more unsolved murders.
Sun Jul 16, 2023, 11:35 PM
Jul 2023

ShotSpotter is effective in bringing officers more quickly to wherever guns are being used.

Why would communities of color be opposed to this realtime response tool?

Eugene

(62,646 posts)
2. While ShotSpotter *claims* 97 percent accuracy, that false positive rate
Sun Jul 16, 2023, 11:49 PM
Jul 2023

and overall effectiveness have been disputed by multiple studies.

ShotSpotter's audio surveillance of conversations (which has been used in court) is also a bone of contention.

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