Mayor Brandon Johnson’s budget proposal once again includes a hefty sum set aside for a ShotSpotter replacement, administration officials told aldermen Thursday.

Officials identified a $5 million line item in the mayor’s 2026 spending plan as money for a “gunshot detection system” when pressed by aldermen during budget hearings. The item’s written description had only said the money was for “software maintenance and licensing.”

But despite the revelation, the plan to spend on a replacement for the controversial acoustic gunshot detection technology that sparked a long, heated clash between Johnson and the City Council is likely no surprise for aldermen. Johnson announced his administration was seeking proposals for “gun violence detection technology” in February.

Still, it’s a noteworthy choice for Johnson, whose budget proposal also includes major cuts to library book-buying funds and the city’s previously promised advanced pension payments.

Ald. Bill Conway, 34th, pointed to the months that have passed since Johnson defied a 33-aldermen City Council majority to end the city’s use of ShotSpotter. Voters widely favored the police response tool, he argued during a council hearing Thursday focused on the Office of Public Safety Administration.

“It seems as though their voice, through the voice of their elected officials, is being ignored under the guise of a complicated [procurement] process,” he told OPSA staff. “Please do what you can to get this technology online as fast as you can.”

Department leaders touted the work to find the replacement technology, promising a “great product” is on the way.

“At this point, there have been several stages, including very rigorous testing, and we’re very confident that it will be a successful [procurement process] with a great product,” OPSA Managing Deputy Director Dan Casey said.

Pressed by Ald. Matthew O’Shea on when the technology could again be activated on Chicago streets, Casey said other departments are in charge of picking the company and negotiating a contract.

“That’s sometimes a lengthy process, but our goal is to make it as fast as possible,” he said.

Casey later clarified that a choice has not yet been made, though he hopes a contract will be reached “by sometime next year.”

Johnson blasted the ShotSpotter technology as a “walkie-talkie on a stick,” arguing it wasted money and made police responses inefficient before he discontinued its use in September 2024. He had previously campaigned promising he would remove it, arguing it led to over-policing in the South and West Side neighborhoods where it was in use.

Proponents, including many Black aldermen from those same neighborhoods, argued the tool sped up police responses after shootings and ultimately saved lives by getting wounded people medical attention more quickly.

Some progressive aldermen Thursday urged OPSA officials to not pick a similar tool to the cancelled ShotSpotter

“My ward does not want ShotSpotter,” Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth, 48th, said. “We want to use technology, but we want to use it to solve crime. We want officers to actually be on the streets.”

The 2025 budget passed by aldermen and the mayor last year included almost $9 million for similar technology. That money has gone unused, giving city officials leeway to use it to plug overspends.

OPSA Executive Director Era Patterson said the smaller amount is a “prorated” sum that acknowledges “the likelihood that we will have a gunshot detection system up and running Jan. 1 is nonexistent.”

Asked about the “acoustic gunshot detection” tools discussed in the hearing, Garein Gatewood, Johnson’s deputy mayor for community safety, described the incoming tools as “first responder technologies.”

He had little to say about the ongoing procurement process. He said he has not yet seen testing results.

“We’ll just let that process play out, because I think ultimately it’s important that the process plays out and it’s fair, and you know, the decisions are made after that,” he said. “I think the process is going the way it’s designed to go.”

In response to the criticism about the procurement process’s speed, Gatewood pointed to the sharp reduction in violent crime Chicago has seen this year. The city has seen a 29% drop in murders compared to the same point last year, almost 150 fewer, according to the Chicago Police Department.