Chicago voters delivered a strong message in favor of gunshot-detection technology Tuesday, with roughly 447,000 casting ballots to support its reinstatement. That’s about 128,000 more votes than Mayor Brandon Johnson received when he was elected in April 2023.
But Cook County voters appeared ready to retain every judge on the ballot — including those linked to controversial rulings in high-profile criminal cases.
A little more than 72% of Chicago voters supported a nonbinding referendum calling for the reinstatement of gunshot-detection technology such as ShotSpotter, according to late-night tallies. The result closely tracked public-opinion polling, which found roughly 70% of residents wanted Mayor Brandon Johnson to keep the system before he shut it down in September 2024.
The referendum does not require Johnson’s administration to restore ShotSpotter or sign a contract with another provider. But its wide margin gives aldermen and community advocates more leverage as they try to convince the mayor’s office to reverse course.
Meanwhile, despite recurring public anger over judges releasing repeat offenders or handing down unpopular rulings in violent crime cases, every Cook County Circuit Court Judge seeking retention appeared likely to secure at least 60% of the vote to earn another six-year term.
Among judges who handle criminal cases in Chicago, Ursula Walowski came closest to falling short. She had received just over 62% support as of 11 p.m. Tuesday, with 98% of precincts reporting. Walowski attracted attention during the campaign after Injustice Watch reported that higher courts had overturned her decisions 25 times during her first six years on the bench — “substantially more” than the totals for the other five criminal court judges seeking retention this year, the outlet reported.
Other judges connected to heavily criticized cases won by much more comfortable margins. Teresa Molina-Gonzalez, the judge who put Blue Line fire attacker Lawrence Reed on the street, received support from more than 70% of Cook County voters. In August 2025, Molina-Gonzalez put Reed on an ankle monitor after he knocked out a psych ward social worker, saying, “I can’t keep everybody in jail because the State’s Attorney wants me to.”
Three months later, Reed was accused of setting a woman on fire aboard a CTA Blue Line train in the Loop.
Judge Tyria Walton won support from nearly 78% of voters. Walton most notably found a woman who ran over a Chicago police officer with his own squad car not guilty of attempted murder by reason of insanity.
With the November election over, Johnson will now have to decide how to handle the ShotSpotter issue as the city’s mayoral election, slated for February 23, heats up. He has repeatedly defended his decision to end Chicago’s use of the gunshot detectors, arguing that the technology was ineffective, despite vocal support for the system from two-thirds of the city’s aldermen and CPD’s superintendent.
After disconnecting ShotSpotter, the city sought proposals from nine companies, including ShotSpotter’s parent company, for a citywide replacement network. During budget hearings on November 6, 2025, Office of Public Safety Administration Executive Director Era Patterson told aldermen that her office had reviewed the proposals and submitted a recommendation to the city’s chief procurement officer.
Yet even after completing testing and identifying a preferred vendor, the Johnson administration has not executed a contract or publicly explained the delay. The stalemate prompted frustrated aldermen to prepare an ordinance that would force the administration to act. Late last month, the city’s chief procurement officer announced that a separate gunshot-detection pilot program would soon begin.
The purported pilot will cover six police districts, all of which previously had ShotSpotter service. But important details of the administration’s plan remain unknown, including the identity of the technology provider and the date the program will start. Even Interim CPD Superintendent Fred Waller acknowledged during a budget hearing last week that he had little information about what the administration was planning.
Original reporting you’ll see nowhere else, paid for by our readers. Click here to support our work.
