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Johnson, who took office last year, had vowed to end the contract during his time as a candidate, saying that "Chicago spends $9 million a year on ShotSpotter despite clear evidence it is unreliable and overly susceptible to human error."

What if grounding does not work? That means there is something else going on because grounding does work. You just need to find the way that works for you. We would strongly recommend you enlist the help of a competent therapist to aid you in this if you are unable to do it on your own. Like any other skill, you need to practice. Find the one thing that works and keep doing it. Practice often and especially when you don’t need it. This helps create neural pathways that are easier to access. Try grounding for a loooooonnnnnnngggggg time (20-30 minutes). Notice which methods you like best. Create your own methods of grounding. Start grounding early in a negative mood cycle. Make up index cards. Have others assist you in grounding. Prepare in advance. Create a tape of a grounding message. Think about why grounding works.

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But, according to research conducted by the MacArthur Justice Center at the Northwestern School of Law in 2021, 89% of Chicago police deployments prompted by ShotSpotter "turned up no gun-related crime and 86% led to no report of any crime at all."

He continued that the city is "taking a step backwards" by relying on the traditional 911 call to respond to shots being fired in neighborhoods, delaying officers' response times.

WHY DO GROUNDING? When we are overwhelmed, shut down, anxious, reacting, defensive, triggered, not present, or dissociating, we are not grounded. If you have expereienced Traumatic events in your life you may experience overwhelming emotions, flashbacks, dissociation, etc. It is important for healing that you become grounded again.

ShotSpotter is a surveillance technology that uses acoustic sensors to detect and locate gunshots, alerting law enforcement in real-time. But it's been met with controversy for not only being very costly, but allegedly inaccurate, ineffective, and even biased.

His campaign website said the expensive technology played a "pivotal role" in the 2021 killing of 13-year-old Adam Toledo by police. The boy was fatally shot during early morning hours in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood after the officer responded to a ShotSpotter notice of several shots fired.

ShotSpotter equipment overlooks the intersection of South Stony Island Avenue and East 63rd Street in Chicago on Aug. 10, 2021. The city will not renew its contract for the gunfire detection equipment. Charles Rex Arbogast/AP hide caption

WAYS OF GROUNDING There are three major ways of grounding, mental, physical, and soothing. “Mental” means focusing your mind; “physical” means focusing on your senses (e.g., touch, hearing); and “soothing” means talking to yourself in a very kind way. You may find that one type works better for you, or all types may be helpful.Mental Grounding

"Brandon Johnson will end the ShotSpotter contract and invest in new resources that go after illegal guns without physically stopping and frisking Chicagoans on the street," the campaign said.

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On Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who campaigned against ShotSpotter, announced that the city won't be renewing its contract with SoundThinking (formerly called ShotSpotter), the company behind the service.

While the company says ShotSpotter is in operation in more than 150 U.S. cities, some cities such as Seattle and Cleveland have debated its efficacy.

"This move will certainly prove to be detrimental to the growth of Black communities and robs these communities of yet another resource aimed at helping to build the community," he said.

In a social media post last week, SoundThinking CEO Ralph Clark defended the technology. "If 80-90% of gunfire goes unreported, why wouldn't you want to close that gap? Especially, if it had the potential to save 100+ lives in addition to other ancillary benefits. Still have not heard any reasonable argument against that proposition."

When you are overwhelmed with emotional pain, you need a way to detach from the emotions so that you can gain control over your feelings and stay safe. This is not the same as avoiding. Grounding “anchors” you to the present and to reality. The goal is to attain a balance between consciousness of reality and the ability to tolerate it. Remember that pain is a feeling; it is not who you are. When you get caught up in it, it feels like you are your pain, and that is all that exists. But it is only one part of your experience-the other parts of your experience are hidden and can be found again through grounding.

There are many ways we can become grounded again. Any sensory modality can be used to become grounded. Focusing on the here and now, rather than the past or future brings us present. The best way is the way that works for you. What is listed below are various strategies that focus on thinking, bodily sensations or external objects. You can also think of it as “centering,” creating a “a safe place,” “looking outward,” or “healthy detachment.”

"The most important measure of ShotSpotter's value is in lives saved. In the time that it has been deployed in Chicago, ShotSpotter has led police to locate hundreds of gunshot wound victims where there was no corresponding call to 911," Clark said. "Those are victims who most likely would not have received aid — if not for ShotSpotter."

Another critical report released that August, from the city's Office of the Inspector General, found that the technology rarely produces "documented evidence of a gun-related crime, investigatory stop, or recovery of a firearm."

"Surveillance technology has a veneer of objectivity, but many of these systems do not work as advertised," said Jonathan Manes, an attorney with the MacArthur Justice Center who spearheaded the study, in a 2021 statement. "High-tech tools can create a false justification for the broken status quo of policing and can end up exacerbating existing racial disparities."

"I am deeply disappointed that we will no longer be using the ShotSpotter technology to help our officers respond to calls more rapidly, render aid to gunshot victims in a more timely manner and ultimately save lives," he said in an email to NPR. "This has been a valuable tool for our police officers in high crime police districts, where some of them average a murder nearly every two weeks."

Chris Taliaferro, an alderman who chairs the City Council's Committee on Police and Fire, pushed back on the decision to end the use of the technology.

If 80-90% of gunfire goes unreported, why wouldn’t you want to close that gap? Especially, if it had the potential to save 100+ lives in addition to other ancillary benefits. Still have not heard any reasonable argument against that proposition.

ShotSpotter equipment overlooks the intersection of South Stony Island Avenue and East 63rd Street in Chicago on Aug. 10, 2021. The city will not renew its contract for the gunfire detection equipment.

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In addition, the Chicago Police Department said it will "implement new training and further develop response models to gun violence that ultimately reduce shootings and increase accountability."

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