The anger is building as the tragedies are unfolding.
It’s been just two weeks since Mayor Brandon Johnson decided in the face of overwhelming opposition within the City Council to end the city’s contract with the company that owns and operates the ShotSpotter gunshot-detection technology. In that brief period, we’ve seen cases of gunshot victims in areas previously served by ShotSpotter discovered by first responders only when they were dead.
In those situations, no one called 911 to say they had heard shots fired.
Two weeks. And there already have been six instances of what the invaluable crime reporting service, CWBChicago, is now calling “Brandon’s Bodies.” That’s a harsh but justifiable tagline. Johnson took this action, fulfilling a campaign promise he’d made, even as far more data than was available during the election surfaced showing how ShotSpotter saves lives.
It does so by alerting first responders to gunshots immediately and — crucially — giving them accurate information on where those shots were fired. In so many documented cases that this effect now is impossible to refute, the technology saves precious time that can make the difference between life and death for victims who’ve initially survived gunshots but otherwise won’t survive without immediate care.