Crime & Law
System Designed to Flag Officers With Multiple Complaints Won’t Be Ready Until 2027, Officials Say
(WTTW News)
A required system designed to alert officials about which officers have been the subject of repeated police misconduct allegations will not be ready to launch until at least 2027, according to records obtained by WTTW News.
Chicago police brass did not update Mayor Brandon Johnson and three City Council committee chairs about their progress in crafting the system until Feb. 18, two days after WTTW News reported they had failed to comply with a provision in the ordinance that implemented the city’s 2026 budget that requires monthly updates on the long-delayed efforts to craft and implement that system, according to records obtained by WTTW News through a Freedom of Information Act request.
“The Department hopes to be able to launch the EISS (Early Intervention and Support System) citywide in 2027,” according to a memo from CPD Chief of Staff Dana O’Malley to the mayor and City Council.
CPD must craft and implement an early warning system under the terms of the federal court order known as the consent decree, which is designed to force the department to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers. The court order has been in effect for more than seven years.
CPD began working in 2023 on crafting “an advanced data-driven early warning tool” that uses “cutting edge predictive analytic tools and data science to provide real-time risk analysis to supervisors,” O’Malley wrote.
CPD selected Benchmark Analytics in 2025 to craft the system, O’Malley wrote. The Chicago-based firm was founded and is led by Ron Huberman, who served as former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s chief of staff.
Under Daley, Huberman, a former police officer and assistant superintendent, also led the city’s Office of Emergency Management Communications, the Chicago Transit Authority and Chicago Public Schools.
It is not clear how much the city is set to pay Benchmark Analytics to craft the system, since the city’s database of vendors with city contracts does not include any records for the firm. It is not clear whether Benchmark Analytics was selected to craft the system after a competitive bidding process.
The firm’s website touts contracts with Phoenix, Minneapolis and San Jose, California, to craft similar systems.
Representatives of Benchmark Analytics, CPD and the Office of Public Safety Administration, which is helping craft the system, did not respond to a request for comment.
“During the latter half of 2025, CPD and OPSA worked with the Benchmark data teams to provide them with both access and information on our current and historical data sources,” O’Malley wrote. “Based on this information, Benchmark’s team of 20+ data scientists created a series of predictive models and algorithms that will identify patterns of conduct that lead to problematic behavior.”
However, before the early warning system can be implemented, CPD must draft new policies governing its use, O’Malley acknowledged. That policy is subject to review by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office and the coalition of police reform groups that sued the city to force it to agree to federal court oversight of CPD.
The policy must be approved by the independent monitoring team charged by U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer with keeping tabs on the city’s progress in complying with the consent decree, which requires CPD to stop routinely violating Black and Latino Chicagoans’ constitutional rights.
CPD released the memo from O’Malley five days after the deadline set by Illinois’ open records law and just hours after WTTW News asked Johnson at a City Hall news conference why the department had failed to provide the required document.
Johnson told WTTW News he had not yet seen the required update on the early warning system.
CPD was required to update Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd Ward), the chair of the Finance Committee; Ald. Jason Ervin (28th Ward), the chair of the Budget Committee; and Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th Ward), the chair of the Police and Fire Committee, on Feb. 1 and March 1.
CPD appears to have only updated those officials once, on Feb. 18, based on CPD’s response to WTTW News’ Freedom of Information Act request.
When Johnson announced the requirement for monthly updates about the system, he said it would make it possible for police leaders to offer officers “early, individualized interventions that improve performance, accountability and wellness — reducing misconduct, building community trust, and lowering litigation costs,” according to the mayor’s office.
CPD has fully complied with 22% of the consent decree’s requirements, according to the most recent report from the monitoring team.
Creating a system that flags officers with multiple complaints and lawsuits to prevent incidents is central to the consent decree, which is designed to restore the public’s trust in CPD, which has faced decades of scandals, misconduct and brutality.
Chicago taxpayers paid $295 million between 2019 and 2024 to resolve lawsuits naming officers whose alleged misconduct led more than once to payouts, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.
WTTW News reported in September 2023 that officials could have rolled out an early warning system citywide in May 2021, but police brass transferred the department members assigned to run the system to patrol amid a surge in crime that has since abated.
That system, developed by the University of Chicago crime lab, has been entirely scrapped.
Johnson is the fourth mayor of Chicago to attempt to implement an early warning system.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
