The city of Chicago spent $129 million on overtime for members of the Chicago Police Department during the first six months of 2024 — nearly 30% more than the Chicago City Council set aside for police overtime as part of the city’s 2024 budget, according to records obtained by WTTW News.

This means the city is on pace to spend at least $258 million on police overtime by the end of the year, even as officials imposed limits on overtime for all city departments, except for police and the Chicago Fire Department, amid a massive budget crunch.

CPD exceeded its budget for overtime in 2024 even after Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling stopped assigning police officers to sit in prominent spots downtown with their emergency lights flashing, as part of CPD's strategic deployment initiative.

Police officers, detectives, sergeants and lieutenants worked more than 1 million hours under the program, sometimes referred to as “scarecrowing,” all paid out as overtime, according to records previously obtained by WTTW News.

Snelling also ended the practice of routinely canceling officers’ regular days off, a practice he said harmed officers’ mental health.

Snelling promised the Chicago City Council a year ago that he would get a handle on employee overtime, promising to be “a lot more fiscally responsible.”

“We regularly review our use of overtime to ensure it is being used appropriately while balancing the need for public safety,” a department spokesperson told WTTW News. “We understand our fiscal responsibility and will continue ensuring overtime is being used to maintain and bolster public safety.”

A spokesperson for Mayor Brandon Johnson did not respond to questions about the amount of money spent by taxpayers to pay officers to work additional shifts.

Behind the Numbers

In all, the city’s 22 departments spent approximately $250 million on overtime during the first half of 2024, according to information published in the city’s online database by the Office of Budget and Management. That data has not yet been audited and is not final.

The Chicago Fire Department spent $43 million in overtime during the first six months of 2024, 7% less than it spent on overtime during the first six months of 2023, according to city data.

WTTW News analyzed overtime spending through June 30 before NASCAR transformed downtown into a racetrack during the Fourth of July weekend, traditionally one of the most violent of the year, and the four-day Democratic National Convention, which took place Aug. 19-22.

Chicago Police officers had their regularly scheduled days off canceled to patrol both events, which will likely boost the city’s final overtime bill for 2024.

The number of sworn Chicago police officers was essentially unchanged between January 2023 and June 2024, according to data compiled by the inspector general’s office.

In all, CPD spent $298 million on police overtime in 2023, 40% more than in 2022 and nearly three times the $100 million earmarked for police overtime set by the Chicago City Council as part of the city’s 2023 budget, according to the city’s database.

During the past year, city officials changed the way they report online what each of the city’s departments spend on overtime, complicating efforts to compare spending from one year to the next.

WTTW News reported in July 2023 that CPD spent $126.5 million on overtime during the first six months of 2023, which was nearly 50% more than during the same period in 2022. That analysis was based on data provided by the city through a Freedom of Information Act request that did not include the full cost of compensating officers who worked overtime. Some officers can choose to take time off in return for working extra shifts, according to contract rules.

Newly available data shows the city actually spent a total of $164.3 million on police overtime between Jan. 1, 2023, and June 30, 2023, according to data published online by the city.

Using the city’s revised calculations, CPD spent approximately 21% less on overtime during the first six months of 2024 than it did during the same period in 2023, according to WTTW News’ analysis.

That reduction translated into an overall drop in the amount spent by all city departments on overtime of approximately 9.5%, according to WTTW News’ analysis.

A spokesperson for Budget Director Annette Guzman did not respond to WTTW News’ questions about the city’s use of overtime, and what impact the new limits outside of the police and fire departments will have on the city’s overall budget picture.

A Perennial Budget Flashpoint

Police overtime spending is a perennial flashpoint in the annual negotiations over the city’s spending plan, but the issue will be especially relevant – and painful – this year, considering the city’s dire financial condition.

In the coming weeks, Mayor Brandon Johnson is set to unveil his plan to fill a $222.9 million deficit by the end of the year and bridge a projected shortfall of $982.4 million in 2025.

Johnson has said sacrifices will need to be made.

Chicago’s watchdog has been warning since 2017 that the money spent to pay officers overtime was “wasted” and fueled burnout, making misconduct and abuse more likely.

The Chicago Police Department has yet to launch a new study on whether officers are efficiently and effectively deployed across the city to stop crime and respond to calls for help, even though the Chicago City Council ordered the study to begin more than four months ago.

A spokesperson for CPD said the contract with the organization that will perform the work “is still being finalized.”

Snelling has agreed to conduct the study, which he said would help CPD “develop a staffing model that ensures that the CPD’s resources are properly allocated,” according to a letter he sent to Inspector General Deborah Witzburg.

CPD is also required to conduct the study by the terms of the consent decree, the federal court order designed to compel CPD to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers.

CPD is in full compliance with just 7% of that more than 5-year-old court order, according to the independent monitoring team.

Witzburg has told WTTW News the study is critical as CPD struggles to comply with the consent decree and Johnson attempts to reorganize CPD as part of a new approach to public safety that focuses on the root causes of crime, including poverty, disinvestment and mental illness.

Witzburg has repeatedly called for city leaders to “right size the footprint of the police department” by deciding which functions sworn officers should be responsible for, what non-sworn members of the department should tackle and which should be handled by another city department or agency.

A report by Witzburg’s office released in July that attempted to determine how many officers CPD members are working on a given day and in a given place found that CPD has serious “record-keeping and data limitations which pose challenges to comprehensive staffing assessments.”

“That is a foundational problem,” Witzburg said, noting that the department does not have clear or accurate data about when and where officers are working and what they are assigned to do.

That makes it impossible for department leaders to manage the department’s limited resources of both officers and funds, Witzburg said, adding that it also makes oversight of the department unattainable.

CPD will always have to pay officers overtime to respond to emergencies, Witzburg said.

“But it should be sustainable, manageable and controllable,” Witzburg said. “That is not the case today.”

Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]