Shotspotter, a gunshot-detection technology company, has built a network of thousands of sensors across Chicago. The devices detect loud noises that a computer algorithm and human analysts review to determine if they’re gunshots, and dispatch police to scenes of shootings. The technology is controversial: studies have raised questions about its efficacy, and activists have called on the city to cancel ShotSpotter’s contract for years.
We spent months investigating the company’s business practices in Chicago. Our investigation combined leaked company emails, documents obtained from the police department and Mayor’s Office via public-records requests, interviews with confidential sources, on-the-ground reporting, and extensive analysis of both leaked and public data.
We found that the Chicago Police Department reported hundreds of missed shootings to ShotSpotter in 2023. We also discovered that a director at Chicago’s Office of Public Safety complained to the company about a 55-round shooting that was missed because of broken sensors. We published emails showing executives’ internal discussions about staffing issues that impacted their ability to repair sensors. In those discussions, executives said they could not tell public safety officials the real reason sensors could not be repaired. We also revealed that the company was warned about electrical code violations on its installations.
In additional stories in the series, we showed that executives lobbied Johnson’s administration to keep the contract and boasted it was a line-item in the mayor’s 2024 budget. Our reporting also found ShotSpotter sensors were listening in police districts that had not been previously disclosed by the city or the company.
We published our findings in the months before Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was expected to announce whether he would fulfill his campaign promise to not renew ShotSpotter’s contract. Ultimately, the mayor kept his promise, and we believe our reporting impacted that decision. At a subsequent press conference, Johnson was asked what the deciding factor was in canceling the contract, and he credited “investigations and reports” that indicated ShotSpotter didn’t yield promised results.
We continued investigating ShotSpotter after Johnson’s announcement, and with leaked company emails and documents obtained by public records requests, we determined that despite public statements to the contrary, ShotSpotter has kept sensors listening in cities where contracts have been canceled. The emails show executives discussed the fact that sensors were active in such cities, and documents we obtained via FOIA requests from police departments around the country showed the company stayed in contact with police, and in some cases provided gunshot-alert reports, after contracts had been canceled. To ensure that the story had national reach, we co-published it with WIRED.
During the investigation, we broke the news of a lawsuit ShotSpotter brought against former employees for allegedly leaking data on Twitter, reporting from the California courthouse where arguments are being heard. We also covered a public meeting in Chicago about ShotSpotter. When city council members launched an attempt to wrest the contract decision from the Mayor’s Office, we published a map of which wards have sensors.
Our investigation is ongoing.
