The Town of Cicero
The Town of Cicero is one of the oldest and largest municipalities in the State of Illinois and the only incorporated town in Cook County. Cicero borders Chicago which is only 8 miles to the west. The town is broken down into eight neighborhoods: Grant Works; Hawthorne; Warren Park; Drezel; Clyde; Morton Park; Boulevard Manor; and Parkholme.
Need for Gunshot Detection
While crime is lower than the US National average at 28% in the city, it has increased by almost 10% in the past year. 55% of recently surveyed citizens perceive a high incident of crime, making them apprehensive about walking alone at night.
Citing concerns for gun-related crimes, the city elected to install gunshot detection technology manufactured by EAGL Technology, Inc. in the early spring of 2023.
Criteria for Choosing EAGL Technology
Cicero chose EAGL for several reasons:
- Ease of installation – citing low infrastructure needs.
- Portability – Ease of installation and future relocation as the city needs change.
- Devices do not draw unwanted attention to themselves or give away their functionality.
- No open microphone or audio recording capabilities – protecting privacy of their citizens
- Simple integration with existing systems
- Lower upfront cost than older and less accurate existing technologies
- Less than 25% of the on-going operational costs of other technology.
Deployment
The City of Cicero elected to use EAGL’s outdoor DragonFly gunshot sensors which are solar powered, and battery operated, with encrypted wireless communications. These sensors were installed within 10 un-published areas of concern within the city.
As of today, they have been leveraged successfully in multiple arrests involving gun-violence and are actively engaged in that ongoing fight.
