Politics
Chicago Spent $58.8M on Police Overtime in 3 Months, 3% Less Than Last Year: Watchdog
Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling talks to the news media following a meeting of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (WTTW News)
The city of Chicago spent at least $58.8 million on overtime for members of the Chicago Police Department during the first three months of 2026 — 3% less than during the same period a year ago, according to records published by the city’s watchdog.
That includes $1.3 million earned by officers in January, February and March to patrol what CPD lists as “planned gathering/march/civil unrest,” according to data published by the inspector general. Chicagoans have frequently taken to the streets to protest President Donald Trump and his policies since the start of the year, including the third “No Kings” rally on March 28 that drew thousands downtown.
Officers earned an additional $1 million in overtime to police the funeral of civil rights icon the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., according to the data published by Witzburg. Former Presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton attended the March 6 memorial along with a host of prominent Democrats and thousands of mourners.
By comparison, CPD spent $60.5 million on police overtime during the first three months of 2025, based on the data published by Witzburg.
In all, Chicago taxpayers spent $285.9 million on overtime for members of the Chicago Police Department during 2025 — 185% more than the Chicago City Council set aside for police overtime as part of the city’s annual budget, according to updated records published by the city’s watchdog.
CPD’s 2026 budget is $2.1 billion, including $200 million for overtime, records show. Between 2020 and 2025, CPD had an annual overtime budget of $100 million — but spent far more every year to pay members of the police department to work more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a week, records show.
To finish 2026 on budget, CPD must reduce its spending on overtime by 30% as compared with what the department spent in 2025, based on the data published by Witzburg.
Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling assured city officials during last fall’s tense budget negotiations that CPD will spend less than $200 million on overtime next year, Budget Director Annette Guzman told reporters.
CPD’s overtime costs have soared because officers’ salaries and benefits have gone up significantly while the number of CPD members has decreased by approximately 1,200 employees since 2019, Chicago Police Department Deputy Director Ryan Fitzsimons told members of the City Council’s Budget and Government Operations Committee in September.
CPD had 11,553 members in March, less than 1% fewer than in March 2025, according to Witzburg’s staffing database.
One of the last changes made to the city’s 2026 spending plan before it was passed by the Chicago City Council over Johnson’s objections removed a requirement that CPD brass publicly ask the City Council for more money if it exhausts its $200 million budget for overtime.
After allowing the budget to take effect without his signature, Johnson signed an executive order designed to impose new limits on police overtime spending despite the City Council’s objections.
Read the full executive order.
Johnson said those limits will serve as a “mechanism that creates just a stronger level of accountability.”
That request must detail the “operations necessitating the need for additional overtime appropriation” and “the funding source within the department’s annual appropriation to be used to provide the additional overtime funding,” according to the order.
“The mayor, in consultation with the superintendent, retains the authority to authorize overtime in response to a genuine, pressing emergency,” according to a statement from the mayor’s office. “Spending on emergency overtime will be documented and subject to administrative review.”
With a just a quarter of the year in the rear-view mirror, CPD has already spent 30% of its annual budget, based on the data published by Witzburg.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
