Mayers Esq. Debates the Use of Shotspotter for Public Safety in Chicago Crusader Article

In an interview with Chicago Crusader's Chinta Strausberg, Carlton Mayers II Esq. detailed both sides of the debate for the use of gun-detection technology systems like Shotspotter.

There are communities that are experiencing ongoing gun violence and also gun interventionists in Chicago who believe that ShotSpotter provides a lot of added value to preventing gun crimes and getting police to show up and hopefully save some lives of people who have been shot. It’s a mix bag depending on which side some groups have taken on the value of ShotSpotter.

You are not going to have that mechanism anymore to tell you when those shots are occurring. You won’t be able to save lives or to try to prevent incidents from occurring. That begs the question what are you going to do to replace ShotSpotter?

If the answer is community police community, which depends on human-to-human interaction and contact between CPD and civilians. We know that the Chicago consent decree which requires that level of community policing mechanisms to be implemented.

We know that the consent decree is moving at a snail’s pace of six percent compliance. Community policing mechanisms are not even operating in Chicago to relay on that as an alternative to ShotSpotter. Everyone has to work in unity.