Council members Coleman Young II, Latisha Johnson, Scott Benson, Renata Miller, Angela Whitfield-Calloway voted for the extension, while Council President James Tate and members Gabriela Santiago-Romero, Denzel McCampbell and Mary Waters voted against it.
Police Chief Todd Bettison requested the extension so ShotSpotter coverage would continue while Detroit police evaluate proposals from ShotSpotter vendor SoundThinking and other vendors for a long-term gunshot detection solution.
“ShotSpotter has proven its value. The residents have spoken. In the third district, we have been working with ShotSpotter for a decade. I will continue to support ShotSpotter and support CVI (Community Violence Intervention) communities,” Benson said during the council’s discussion.
More than 100 Detroiters on Tuesday voiced their support for the ShotSpotter program or opposition to the use of surveillance technology, including Lakeisha Brooks, the mother of a 7-year-old boy who was shot and injured on the west side of Detroit last week.
“Unfortunately, my nephew was killed, but it wasn’t for this ShotSpotter my 7-year-old son would be dead. So I support it, because it’s gonna save a lot of children,” she told the council, fighting back tears.
Dujuan “Zoe” Kennedy, executive director of FORCE Detroit, said his support for ShotSpotter was conditional: he wants Detroit police to work with CVI groups to provide grief counseling and other services to the victims of crimes and their families after ShotSpotter alerts the department to shootings.
Police Commissioner Victoria Camille (District 7) and former Police Commissioner Willie Burton, who lost the race for District 5 City Council Member to Renata Miller last November, were among those who spoke against the ShotSpotter contract during public comment.
“We all want our communities to be safe, even if we have different ideas to get there. It breaks all of our hearts when our neighbors get shot by each other and when they get locked up for making the wrong decision,” Camille said.
“There are investments to be made, but they are in community and people, not in expensive algorithms,” she added.
Detroit police failed to report key ShotSpotter metrics to the Board of Police Commissioners for more than a year between August 2023 and February 2025, despite a policy directive requiring at least quarterly updates, The News reported earlier this month.
He said, “The fact that this company is telling us for 9 months, $2 million is a real challenge for me. That leads me now to a situation where I cannot approve this particular amendment. I am looking forward to the [Request for Proposal] for whatever we’re looking do next.”
The council’s Public Health and Safety Committee recommended last week that the full council reject the contract extension.
Committee Chair Gabriela Santiago-Romero and Vice Chair Denzel McCampbell, the council’s two democratic socialists, had questioned police leadership over privacy concerns and cost.
The ShotSpotter system is made up of microphones that detect the audio signals of potential gunshots by filtering out sounds like traffic and wind. If three or more sensors detect a possible gunshot, the software identifies the location of the shot using the time and angle of the arriving sound waves.
@bwarren@detroitnews.com
