(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Days after the city of Chicago ended its use of the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system, the president of Chicago’s police union says the decision will cost people their lives.
Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara posted a video online titled “RIP ShotSpotter,” in which he said ShotSpotter’s effectiveness in saving lives has been “very well documented.”
“People are not going to be calling 911 every single time,” Catanzara said. “There will be victims laying in the street, unbeknownst to [Chicago Police Department] members.”
He was very critical of the mayor for his veto, which ended the use of the technology, as well as the 14 city council members who voted to get rid of ShotSpotter.
“These people are clueless,” Catanzara said. “They will literally run this city into the ground. Regardless of this walkie-talkie on a pole nonsense that this clueless … ignorant mayor and his rhetoric keep spouting.”
Ahead of a recent special city council meeting concerning the city’s use of the technology, Mayor Brandon Johnson equated ShotSpotter — which uses audio sensors to try and provide an accurate location of where gunshots may have been fired — to “walkie-talkies on a stick.”