Chicago launches public safety technology pilot two years after ShotSpotter ended

Well, Dane, it's still unclear how exactly this pilot program will work. The city has released very few details about this. What we do know is that this is going to be tested across six different districts and it's going to be kicking off within the next two weeks. According to Joseph Williams, district councilor for the seventh district of the Chicago Police Department, the city's new pilot program will include his district, which is Englewood. In a statement to Fox Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson says the goal is to to determine what works what protects residents civil rights and ensures that technology improves public safety before making long-term commitments however he did not identify which technology or vendors will be tested he did not explain how the system will work he also did not say how much this will cost the statement also did not outline how the city will measure the pilot's effectiveness how long the testing will last or whether the results will be made public before the city decides whether to move forward. Despite the few details, Williams says he welcomes the program. We had a meeting last night and some of our seniors talked about it and one of the things that I've heard from community members is that they would love to see a technology or some sort of system that could replace ShotSpotter that would come into our community and would help get those officers to those responses a little bit faster when those calls are coming in to make sure that when things are happening in their community it can be tracked down a little bit better and it's not so much work on our officers so overall i've heard really good feedback from community members about how the technology helped them and their families when they had calls happen and it's been about two years now since the city discontinued that ShotSpotter program again the City releasing very few details tonight. Williams says he is excited to have this pilot program kicking off in his district. We're live here in the Loop. Liza Moreno, Fox Chicago.