Peoria has renewed the police department’s subscription to the ShotSpotter gunfire detection system for another three years.
Speaking before the Peoria City Council on Tuesday, Police Chief Brad Dixon said the service has been very helpful in assisting officers in their response to shooting incidents.
“It provides situational awareness for the responding officers that are going on these calls,” said Dixon. “The officers get there faster; the ShotSpotter alerts come in faster than they are dispatched, so they get on scene quicker and they’re able to provide aid if there’s somebody injured.”
Kevin Johnson, a representative of the California-based firm Sound Thinking that provides ShotSpotter, says Peoria stands out as a model for its implementation of public safety technology.
“What Peoria is doing with ShotSpotter is outstanding,” said Johnson, a former Chicago Police deputy chief with 30 years of law enforcement experience. “It’s a pure example of what you do when you have the police department working to respond to gunfire, get there faster, save lives, get that ballistic evidence, build those into cases.
“The goal is to get rid of those serial trigger-pullers in your community. I see stories every other day [about] what Peoria has done in terms of getting arrests, responding, leveraging public safety technology the right way.”
According to the city staff’s agenda memo, Peoria uses ShotSpotter in two areas, each covering three square miles. One located on the southwest side has been in service since 2013, and the second was added in Central Peoria two years later.
The technology generally does not sense shots fired indoors or inside a vehicle. Over a two-year period covering 2024-25, ShotSpotter registered nearly 2,000 alerts in Peoria. A total of 143 shootings were detected, with 25 fatalities among 166 total victims.
“It’s such a pinpoint accurate technology, we’re able to locate casings and forensic technology that we use to build these cases,” said Dixon, who also emphasized the transparency dashboard on the department’s website where ShotSpotter data is tracked and available to the public.
The city council unanimously approved the contract renewal at an annual cost of $316,000, representing a 5% increase in the first year that remains flat in the subsequent years.
In other business
Also as part of regular business, the council unanimously approved a sole-source, three-year contract with Lodestar Claims and Risk Services to take over third-party administration of the city’s general liability claims program at an estimated cost of $346,000.
Lodestar already administers the city’s workers compensation claims, while the general liability services has been handled by Gallagher Basset under a per-claim rate fee since 2023. That agreement is set to expire on Oct. 1.
Hayes said the switch is expected to provide better services for both city staff and residents submitting claims.
Items approved as part of the consent agenda include:
- Vacating a 150-foot section of an alley between Johnson and McBean streets running from MacArthur Highway to Saratoga Street to facilitate the MacArthur Senior Flats project;
- An application for Surface Transport Block Grant funds for improvements on Abington Street needed for completion of the Rock Island Greenway project, with a $1 million federal funding request and no less than $430,000 in a local match for construction costs;
- A recommended Community Development Block Grant [CDBG] public services application for 2027 funding in the amount of $270,000;
- And a two-year agreement, with options for two additional years, for Advanced Medical Transport’s management of Peoria Cares calls at a cost not to exceed $98,000 per year.
Two items pulled from the consent agenda by council member Denis Cyr were approved unanimously following brief discussions:
- Formal submission of the annual action plan for 2026 tied to the Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD] consolidated grant allocation totaling more than $2.5 million;
- And accepting a grant of $1.3 million in HOME Investment funds from HUD as gap financing, and adopting a $593,000 redevelopment agreement with the Peoria Opportunities Foundation for the $13 million MacArthur Flats project.
Under new business, Mayor Rita Ali announced that a delegation from Friedrichshafen, Germany, will come to Peoria next week to mark the 50th anniversary of their sister city relationship.
“The lives of citizens on both cities, both Peoria and Friedrichshafen, and have been enriched by the warm friendship that continues to grow,” said Ali, adding the delegation has activities planned at various locations across the city during the visit.
