Chicago has discreetly authorized a major payment for a comprehensive ‘law enforcement search engine and information platform’ developed by SoundThinking, the same company known for its gunshot detection system, ShotSpotter. This followed a six-month trial of the application known as CrimeTracer in 2024. However, the future direction of this program is unclear. It was in August that the city made a payment of $727,361 to SoundThinking for CrimeTracer, based on a receipt issued by the Office of Public Safety Administration (OPSA) and released to the public. While the receipt made no specific mention of CrimeTracer, it was linked to the software via a Freedom of Information Act request, and the payment was confirmed to be for this system by the OPSA.
Further details, such as whether an active agreement exists between the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and SoundThinking regarding CrimeTracer, remain unknown. The OPSA didn’t reveal any updated contract details, and neither could any comments regarding this payment be procured from the CPD or the office of Mayor Brandon Johnson. Also, there are no current contracts with SoundThinking for CrimeTracer documented in the city’s procurement records. The ambiguity surrounding CPD’s engagement with surveillance technology echoes existing concerns over transparency and privacy.
In fact, this situation is demonstrative of the convoluted procurement and financial maneuvers that enable the Chicago police to channel payments to private corporations with minimal public exposure or scrutiny. CrimeTracer is already used by over 2,500 law enforcement agencies and has the distinction of having the ‘largest network of agency data in America,’ making it a sort of police-oriented equivalent to Google. The software enables users to look up a person’s license plate number, name, or even broad description in its ‘Information Network’ of more than 1.3 billion records.
The CrimeTracer database is populated with data gathered from sources such as license plate readers, 911 call logs, booking photos, arrest warrants & reports, ShotSpotter alerts, ballistic reports of firearms, wedding registrations, vehicle registrations, among others. The software’s analytical and visualization tools can graphically relate associated people, incidents, properties, and vehicles. SoundThinking first approached the CPD regarding CrimeTracer in January 2023, and a free trial agreement was signed by Police Superintendent Larry Snelling in October of the same year.
The proposal, dated February 8, 2023, outlined a six-month trial for up to 300 users within CPD’s Area Four, which encompasses most of the city’s western region, characterized by a predominantly Black and Brown populace. The proposal stated that SoundThinking’s team would merge the CPD’s data repositories with the CrimeTracer ‘Information Network,’ enabling the CPD to access records from agencies outside the area and vice versa.
The agreement from October 2023 stipulated that upon the conclusion of the trial duration, the CPD could either stop using CrimeTracer or retain it on an ‘annual paid subscription basis.’ SoundThinking agreed to forgo all costs associated with the trial. Given the payment of $700,000 in August, it suggests that the CPD decided to continue using the service. Additionally, it appears that a provision in the OPSA’s 2024 budget of $500,000 is allocated for this technology under a section known as ‘software maintenance and licensing.’
Before the launch of the trial, Ralph Clark, CEO of SoundThinking, during a November 2023 earnings call, projected that it would conclude in a significant transaction amounting to mid or high six figures in the latter part of 2024. The CPD’s press office sidestepped all queries referring them instead to the mayor’s office and the OPSA. Erin Connelly, serving as Mayor Johnson’s spokesperson, acknowledged the request initially but subsequent attempts to engage her over weeks were met with silence.
Moreover, Jerome Flip, the spokesperson for SoundThinking, chose to abstain from comment. Freddy Martinez, associated with the research of police surveillance at Lucy Parsons Labs, expressed that the procurement of disputed surveillance tech by the CPD mirrored their usual operational mode. Martinez criticized ‘pilot’ software given to agencies that are then covertly purchased without notifying the public or seeking its approval, continuing under the Johnson administration without any evaluation of their utility, necessity, or costs.
The Department of Procurement Services typically manages a large portion of the city’s contractual services. In 2020, the then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot established the OPSA to oversee procurement specifically for the city’s police, fire, and emergency management departments. The objective was to eliminate duplicated costs across these agencies and merge civilian employees working in departments like finance and human resources. The OPSA’s operating budget generally covers the funding for much of the surveillance technology utilized by the CPD.
Chicago has seen the widespread use of surveillance technologies ranging from license plate readers to predictive algorithms. Police seem eager to test these new technologies largely in the city’s predominantly Black and Brown south and west sides. Yet the implementation of these tools often displays an alarming lack of public transparency, oversight, or accountability, despite their significant price tags and encroachment on privacy and due process.
CrimeTracer, formerly known as Coplink, is a product of a collaboration in the late 1990s between the University of Arizona and the Tucson Police Department. This company was sold multiple times, with acquisitions by IBM in 2011 and Forensic Logic in 2017, before it was finally acquired by SoundThinking in 2022. Senior organizer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, José Martinez, condemned the multiple acquisitions and trials as an indication of how mass data collection often serves to further business and marketing ends over concerns about state and corporate violence.
Chicago first experimented with CrimeTracer in 2007 when officials paid $500,000 to integrate the technology into the city’s joint federal, state, and local information-sharing hub, known as the fusion center. However, it is unclear when the CPD ceased using this product. Last February, Mayor Johnson fulfilled his promise made during his election campaign to cancel the city’s contract with SoundThinking for ShotSpotter, pushing the extension only until November.
This decision was backed by a grassroots campaign arguing that the substantial funds utilized for the technology could be more productively invested in community services like housing and education. In his defense, Johnson equated ShotSpotter with ineffective ‘walkie-talkies on a stick,’ arguing that it has had no significant impact on reducing gun violence in Chicago. Despite the criticism from some individuals in the City Council, their insistence on maintaining the contract was futile.
Following this, in February, Johnson’s administration declared its intent to solicit newer proposals for ‘gun violence detection technology.’ All proposals are to be submitted by the prospective contenders by April 11.