Chicago cops playing catch-up on gunfire sensors

In 2012, the Chicago Police Department installed ShotSpotter gunfire sensors in the high-crime Englewood District on the South Side and Harrison District on the West Side.

But the city has only recently moved to take full advantage of the crime-fighting technology, variations of which have long been the stuff of TV shows and movies.

It wasn't until last fall that the department began to integrate officers' mobile computer terminals with the ShotSpotter system. Before that, Chicago cops had to wait for ShotSpotter alerts to come over their police radios.

And it was only last month that the department, ramping up its use of the sensors to direct officers to shootings, announced it would distribute ShotSpotter-equipped cellphones to officers.

Contrast that to South Bend, Indiana. The much smaller city - seen as a model for using the technology to its fullest - began using the sensors a year after Chicago did.

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