Mayor Brandon Johnson on Wednesday once again defended his decision to disconnect the city’s gunfire detection network, claiming that a University of Chicago study found CPD responded “four times faster to the city’s most serious 911 calls” in some South and West Side neighborhoods after the city ended its relationship with ShotSpotter. But that is not what the study says.
The report, which consists of map graphics rather than a detailed analysis, claims police response times improved by four minutes within 12 neighborhoods during the first six months after ShotSpotter was turned off, not that officers responded four times faster. The findings also show that response times improved across most parts of the city during those six months, even in neighborhoods that never had ShotSpotter.
After WTTW published a friendly report about the analysis shortly before Johnson’s press conference, several questions arose about its findings…