Rising costs for Chicago Police Dept. become increasing focus of city leaders

CHICAGO - As members of the City Council debated how to pass the city’s 2026 budget and raise enough revenue to close a $1.1 billion deficit, rising costs were also at issue.

Multiple city leaders proposed various ways to constrain the rising expenses for one of the city’s largest budget items: the Chicago Police Department.

Dig deeper:

CPD is by far the city’s most expensive department, comprising more than half of total spending on personnel out of more than 30 city departments. It has more than 12,000 employees, including about 11,000 sworn officers, according to city records.

Just last week, Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order aimed at reigning in spending on police officer overtime, which has been increasing over the last several years. Johnson said in a statement that bringing "discipline and accountability" to the overtime process "has been long overdue."

Earlier this month, Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th Ward) argued for a forensic audit of CPD to see where money could be spent more efficiently.

"When we are dealing with this level of financial crisis, we have to look at our largest line items first," Vasquez said in a statement. "The Chicago Police Department represents over half of our corporate fund dollars. An independent forensic audit of CPD will ensure we’re doing our job of oversight by making sure those funds are being spent effectively and efficiently."

Last month, as aldermen dug into Johnson’s initial budget proposal, some argued for more of a focus on cutting spending before raising any taxes, especially as many residents were about to be hit with expensive property tax bills. The mayor’s budget director, Annette Guzman, also made the point that to most effectively reduce city spending, the focus would have to be on the police department.

"That’s why I keep saying, if you’re going to do this, the only way to cut, you have to hit CPD," Guzman said during that Nov. 17 meeting.

Still, the response of at least one alderman, Jason Ervin (28th Ward), illustrated the tricky politics of reducing spending on policing, especially after multiple high-profile instances of violence in recent weeks.

"I’m not signing up for that one. I’m just letting you know," said Ald. Jason Ervin. "I’m not signing up to further reduce public safety."

The Chicago Police Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment on this story.

Rising overtime, settlement costs

By the numbers:

Spending on CPD has increased by 26.5% since 2019, according to an analysis by the Civic Federation, an independent and nonpartisan government research organization.

In addition, the amount of money CPD actually spends each year has exceeded the amount budgeted in all but one year (2020) between 2019 and 2024.

In 2019, 2021, and 2022, expenses went over budget by less than 3%.

But in more recent years, the differences have been greater. In 2023, spending was 9.2% higher than budgeted and in 2024, it was 11.7% higher.

So what’s been driving the rising costs?

According to the Civic Federation, the department has consistently under-spent on salaries. Five of the past six years saw CPD spend less money than was appropriated for salaries, largely due to there being about 10% of its positions remaining vacant.

At the same time, the department has been spending more on overtime costs, exceeding its overtime budget each of the past six years, according to the Civic Federation. For example, in 2024, the city budgeted $100 million for overtime, but CPD spent $238 million.

For 2026, the city budgeted $200 million, which the analysis called "more realistic," but hiring and retaining officers has continued to plague the department.

Another big expenditure was payouts to settle lawsuits brought against the city for alleged police misconduct. It's been a trend in five of the past six years and aldermen have sought more information on trends and costs of potential settlements the city's lawyers agree to. The City Council ultimately has to approve the settlements.

Proposals to curb spending

What they're saying:

Johnson’s executive order essentially makes it so that CPD cannot unilaterally approve overtime for officers beyond what was budgeted. Such an expense would need approval from his Office of Budget Management and the City Council.

CPD would have to provide elected leaders with detailed information on the request for more overtime at least three months before the anticipated operations. City leaders have said larger overtime expenses are typically associated with big events like Lollapalooza and planned protests.

The mayor would retain the right to approve overtime in response to a "genuine, pressing emergency."

Vasquez’s proposal to audit the police department would be a much larger undertaking, as he estimated it could take about a year to complete.

Still, he said, "if we don’t start now to do our due diligence, we’re going to have officers out there doing jobs that really they shouldn’t be doing," Vasquez told Fox Chicago earlier this month. He pointed to the example of writing parking tickets, which someone who is not a sworn officer could do for less pay.

Such a change was suggested in a report from an outside accounting firm which estimated that using civilian positions for certain tasks instead of sworn officers could lead to about $78 million in savings over a decade.

Vasquez also wants more oversight on the settlement of lawsuits brought over alleged police misconduct, including some cases dating back decades. The alder wants bi-monthly hearings on misconduct settlement trends. While he said that residents whose civil rights are violated by officers should be compensated, he argued that alders "would not be doing our job" if they didn’t examine the trends in misconduct and how CPD is addressing the issue.

For 2025, the City Council budgeted $82 million to fund police settlements, but the amount actually approved by alders blew way past that figure.

"In the past two years, we’ve seen what happens when City Council members aren’t fully equipped with the information we need to thoroughly examine and interrogate the City budget, and propose alternative solutions where necessary," Vasquez said. "We have been elected by the people of Chicago to represent their concerns when it comes to how this city spends taxpayer dollars. In order to do that, we need to make sure we have all of the information on how those funds are being spent. We owe it to the people of Chicago."