Chicago to Pay 500,000 Dollars to Man Wrongfully Charged With Murder Based on Faulty ShotSpotter Alert

The City of Chicago will pay $500,000 to Michael Williams, who was wrongfully jailed for murder based on an unreliable ShotSpotter alert in 2020.

By: AXL Media

Published: Mar 4, 2026, 7:11 AM EST

Source: The information in this article was sourced from WTTW News

A Tactical Resolution to a Surveillance Scandal

Chicago taxpayers are set to fund a 500,000 dollar payout to resolve a civil rights lawsuit that challenged the accuracy of the city’s former gunshot detection technology. Michael Williams, 65, filed the suit after being wrongfully incarcerated for nearly a year on murder charges that were eventually dismissed. In an unusual legal maneuver, the city utilized a specific provision of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to offer a judgment, effectively bypassing the need for a standard settlement agreement or a vote from the Chicago City Council. This method allows the city to conclude the litigation without a formal finding of liability or an admission that the plaintiff’s claims of being framed were valid.

The Failure of Forensic Acoustic Monitoring

The criminal case against Williams began in May 2020 during a period of widespread civil unrest following the police murder of George Floyd. Williams was providing a ride to his neighbor, 25 year old Safarian Herring, when Herring was fatally struck by a bullet. Although Williams maintained that the shot was fired into his vehicle by an outside party, Chicago police used a ShotSpotter alert to argue that the gunfire originated from within the car. However, the technology’s own contract with the city contained warnings that the system could not be reliably used to detect gunshots occurring inside vehicles or buildings, a critical detail that was overlooked during the initial investigation.

The High Cost of Wrongful Incarceration

The impact of the wrongful charge on Williams was profound, as he remained in a Cook County jail cell for eleven months while the state’s attorney’s office evaluated the thin evidence against him. During his time in custody, Williams reportedly contracted COVID 19 twice and faced the psychological toll of being accused of killing a neighbor he was attempting to assist. It was not until July 2021 that a judge dismissed the charges at the request of prosecutors, who admitted they lacked the necessary evidence to proceed to trial. The MacArthur Justice Center, which represented Williams, described the ordeal as a double nightmare involving both a random act of violence and a failure of the police department.