Two multi-million-dollar contracts for ShotSpotter police surveillance tools violated a community oversight law, according to the Michigan Court of Appeals.

A panel of judges overturned a lower court ruling last week in favor of residents and legal groups that sued the city in 2022. Judges found the city repeatedly violated requirements to publicly post a report on how the technology works before holding public hearings at City Council but stopped short of voiding the contracts, allowing a lower court to determine the consequence.

“With surveillance and similar technology ever encroaching into every recess of modern life, procedural safeguards cannot be ignored or downplayed by government actors as mere technicalities,” reads a joint opinion from Presiding Judge Kristina Robinson Garrett and Judge Brock Swartzle. 

“To ensure that technology serves the people, and not the other way around, strict compliance with procedural safeguards like the (Community Input Over Government Surveillance) ordinance may well be needed. And, unfortunately, such compliance was lacking here.”

Attorney John Philo with the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice said this case is about making sure that residents are equipped with good information when surveillance technology contracts are considered. 

“Proper oversight includes a knowledgeable public,” Philo said. “To leave that behind is a cynical approach to government and a cynical approach to democracy overall. In terms of whether ShotSpotter is good or bad, that’s not what this case is about. If you’re going to adopt it, then let’s have an informed public and an honest debate about the pros and cons of that technology, and let’s report what it’s doing.

“There was really an effort by the city not to do that reporting, not to do that sort of upfront disclosure, to avoid that debate.”

It’s unclear whether the contracts will be allowed to stand. The Court of Appeals left it up to the lower court to decide, stating that “it is not at all clear there is any remedy for this violation of the ordinance.” The $7 million expansion contract expires June 30, 2026. 

Detroit’s Community Input Over Government Surveillance (CIOGS) ordinance applies when city departments seek contracts for surveillance tools. It requires city departments to outline the technology’s purpose, capabilities and impact on civil liberties in a public report. Crucially, the report must be issued 14 days before holding public meetings on the contract.

Detroit Corporation Counsel Conrad Mallett said the ruling doesn’t void the use of ShotSpotter. Philo said the ruling shows double-standard in the law where contractors and the city must follow procurement rules under threat of having contracts nullified, unless its citizen oversight. 

ShotSpotter is a gunshot detection system offered by SoundThinking Inc., which uses a network of listening devices to identify and report gunshot sounds. Detroit started using ShotSpotter in parts of the Eighth and Ninth 9th Precincts in 2020, before the oversight ordinance was enacted. Two years later, the city sought to extend its initial contract and approve a new contract that would expand listening devices into new areas.

The council started public discussions in June 2022. Residents did not receive access to the oversight report until Sept. 28, a day after the extension contract was approved and 14 days before the expansion contract was approved. 

Former Police Chief James White pitched ShotSpotter as a way to stop shootings, which raised concerns from police oversight groups that uplifted research showing ShotSpotter has little impact on crime statistics. The company itself does not guarantee the technology will prevent crime in its contract with the city.

Mayor Mike Duggan and other city officials continue to praise ShotSpotter’s effectiveness. Deputy Police Chief Franklin Hayes said the tool has helped make 131 arrests and recover 244 firearms. It recently notified officers of a shooting that wasn’t reported to 911, where they found an injured person who received treatment. 

The Law Department argued the oversight ordinance doesn’t apply because the city was already using ShotSpotter under a contract that predates the oversight ordinance. Wayne County Circuit Court Judge David Allen ruled in 2023 that the city satisfied the ordinance. 

The Court of Appeals overturned the ruling last week, determining that all surveillance technology contracts must follow the ordinance before it can take advantage of a “grandfather clause.” It found that the city repeatedly violated its ordinance by holding multiple public meetings on ShotSpotter before the oversight report was published. 

The court ruled that the report provided by the city was detailed enough after residents argued it lacked key information. Detroit Justice Center Attorney Eric Williams had argued the city left several parts of the report blank. 

Philo said residents pushed the City Council to change the law and create more transparency, only for the city to sidestep the ordinance. 

“It was really refreshing and positive to see a higher court saying that (the ordinance) actually should have meaning,” Philo said. “The entire intent of that ordinance is to require reporting and require a very robust public hearings period.” 

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What page are we on?

Today’s notebook covers the Oct. 14 formal session. 

Dig into the agenda, read Detroit Documenter notes or watch the recording for more details.

Election Day is Nov. 4. Check out our voter guide covering all City Council races. Interviews with candidates are also available on our podcast Detroit Next. 

Our election tracker provides regular updates on city races. Stay on top of upcoming election events with this Google calendar.

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Riverfront WNBA facility may avoid community benefits

Executives with the Detroit Pistons are building support for a plan to redevelop a long inaccessible field along the city’s east riverfront into a WNBA practice facility and youth sports complex. 

A $50 million WNBA facility is being planned for construction in time for the 2029 season using two tax breaks valued at $40.6 million and $9.1 million. The cost of youth sports facilities has “not yet been determined,” but would be managed by a tax-exempt nonprofit.

The project may not trigger the city’s community benefits ordinance, which requires developers to negotiate additional investments with nearby residents when their projects exceed $75 million and seek tax breaks.

The Pistons referred questions to the city when asked whether the project would go through with a community benefits agreement. The city did not immediately respond on Tuesday. 

The 42-acre site is owned by the City of Detroit and Detroit Brownfield Redevelopment Authority and would be leased to the developers. Detroiters can weigh in on the project at a 5 p.m. Wednesday public hearing at Cred Cafe, 6340 E. Jefferson Ave.

A brownfield plan was unveiled earlier this month outlining the project and environmental cleanup needed at the site, which was polluted by industrial activities at a former Uniroyal factory there. The property includes contaminated soil and groundwater that will be dug up and covered.

WNBA facilities include a 75,000-square-foot multisport complex including a headquarters and practice facility. Construction of the WNBA facility is estimated to start in 2027. 

Youth sports facilities include multiple outdoor and indoor athletic fields, concessions and comfort areas, and surface parking to service the campus. The total number of parking spaces and parking locations will be decided through conversations between developers and city planning officials.

The project is expected to generate 291 construction jobs, 71 full-time jobs and an unknown number of additional jobs related to the youth facility. 

The campus is intended to serve as a national model for the advancement of youth and women’s sports, according to city documents. 

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Overheard in CAYMC

Here’s a recap of intrigue raised by residents during the public comment portion of Tuesday’s meeting and other notable items discussed by the council.

The council honored two residents who saved children from a burning building. Angela Boone was first to call 911 when she came across a fire on Detroit’s west side and flagged down Timothy Davis, who ran into the smoke flames to rescue a 3-year-old.

Detroit Fire Chief David Nelson said their heroic actions captured the soul of the city. Davis aided in resuscitating the child, which Davis said literally meant the difference between life and death. One woman was killed in the fire while four others were rescued. 

Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey responded to claims from Republican activists that absentee ballots were illegally cast from the Wayne County Jail. Winfrey, in a memo provided by City Council President Mary Sheffield’s office, said people who are housed in county jails awaiting arraignment, trial or serving a misdemeanor are eligible to vote using absentee ballots. 

Michigan law prevents people who were convicted and sentenced from voting while confined. Voting rights activists, the Clerk’s Office and Michigan Secretary of State have worked to legally register incarcerated people who are awaiting sentencing in past elections. 

“For individuals in county jail, the process is identical to that of any other absentee voter and is administered exclusively by official Department of Elections staff,” Winfrey wrote in the memo. “Upon receipt of an absentee ballot application, official staff validate and verify the voter’s registration status against the Michigan Qualified Voter File. Once the application and signature are confirmed, and only then, a ballot is issued and delivered to the eligible voter in jail.”

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Disaster funding covers public housing upgrades 

The Detroit Housing Commission will use $31 million in federal disaster recovery funding to build 300 new public housing units and upgrade units for “extremely low-income households.”

Detroit received $346 million total from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to rebuild after severe storms and flooding in 2023. The council authorized using a portion of the funds to rehabilitate housing complexes and make water infrastructure upgrades.

This program will serve residents of public housing located in City Council Districts 1, 3, 5, and 7 who are at or below 30% of the area median income, which totals $21,210 for a single person and $27,270 for a three-person household. 

Housing Commission Executive Director Arthur Jemison said the funds will upgrade public housing at Brewster Homes, Smith Homes, Forest Park and Sojourner Truth. 

“These funds are essential to our ability to develop public housing,” Jemison said. “We’re excited about the potential to do more rehabilitation of existing properties. Our challenge is we have 3,000 households in public housing who desperately need their development attended to.” 

Council members said there’s a broader need to improve the city’s public housing stock. Sheffield said all of the buildings she’s visited are in rough shape. Council Member Angela Whitfield-Calloway said Detroit has enough vacant buildings to shelter homeless people but they need to be fixed first. 

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Free bus rides offered on Election Day 

City buses will be free on Election Day, Nov. 4, to help voters travel to polling places.  

The Detroit Department of Transportation is making good on a promise it made to council members during the 2025-26 budgeting process. City Clerk Janice Winfrey and DDOT Director Robert Cramer held a press conference last week to announce the new service. 

Free bus rides are available to anyone, regardless of whether they are traveling to a voting location. 

The buses will operate their normal route schedule and won’t take riders directly to polling places. However, a number of polling places are located along bus routes. 

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Voters who requested absentee ballots should have received them in the mail, according to the Department of Elections. Absentee ballots can be returned through secure drop boxes, dropped off at the Department of Elections or mailed. Voters can also cast a ballot at early voting centers from Oct. 25 to Nov. 2.