Investigations
Repeated Police Misconduct by 200 Officers Cost Chicago Taxpayers $164.3M Over 5 Years: Analysis
Chicago Police Department Headquarters, 3510 S. Michigan Ave. (Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
Chicago taxpayers paid $164.3 million to resolve lawsuits that named 200 Chicago police officers whose alleged misconduct led more than once to payouts from 2019 to 2023, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.
In all, the city spent $384.2 million to resolve lawsuits alleging approximately 1,300 Chicago police officers committed a wide range of misconduct — including false arrest and excessive force — during the five-year period that the Chicago Police Department was under a federal court order known as the consent decree to stop violating the civil rights of Chicagoans, according to WTTW News’ analysis. Through the end of May, the city spent at least $37.6 million in 2024 to resolve police misconduct lawsuits.
Cases that involved at least one officer with repeated claims of misconduct accounted for nearly 43% of the cost borne by taxpayers to resolve police misconduct cases between 2019 and 2023, according to the analysis.
In 2023 alone, the city spent $34.4 million to resolve lawsuits that named officers whose alleged misconduct more than once cost Chicago taxpayers money, accounting for approximately 40% of the total cost to taxpayers, according to WTTW News’ analysis.
A spokesperson for the Chicago Department of Law, led by Corporation Counsel Mary Richardson Lowry, told WTTW News in January that a new legal case management system designed to provide officials with “better data and analysis” was scheduled to launch in March.
However, that system has yet to be implemented, five months later.
The city’s “legal case management system is being completely overhauled so this isn’t a small undertaking,” said Law Department spokesperson Kristen Cabanban. “Implementation is being phased and overseen by (the Department of Technology and Innovation). I don’t expect us to have all the kinks ironed out until later this year.”
Cabanban declined to comment on the specifics of any lawsuit facing the city.
“The city has a fiduciary duty to the taxpayers to evaluate each case for potential risk and liability and to take appropriate steps to minimize financial exposure to the city,” Cabanban said. “We also have a duty to provide representation and indemnify employees if a claim or action is made against city employees resulting from an act occurring within the scope of their employment.”
WTTW News’ analysis is the third annual examination of data published by the Chicago Law Department in annual litigation reports, which are required by the consent decree, the federal court order designed to compel the Chicago Police Department to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers.
Even though the consent decree was signed more in February 2019, CPD has fully complied with just 7% of its requirements.
The reports reviewed by WTTW News did not contain the full names of all officers, which were pulled from federal and state case documents and compared against a record of officers’ badge numbers, which sometimes accompany civil suits. In some cases, it was not possible to identify the officers involved.
The reports are “an effort to inform the public about lawsuits against the city involving allegations of civil rights violations or injuries due to a vehicle pursuit involving a CPD officer,” according to the consent decree, which took effect in March 2019 after a federal investigation found officers routinely violated the civil rights of Black and Latino Chicagoans.
The 2023 annual litigation report was published online in June by the Law Department without any notice to the public or the City Council, which has never held a hearing about the data.
The five annual reports are the most comprehensive source about police misconduct lawsuits, and the only official list that links individual officers to specific cases.
Fifty-seven officers were named in three or more cases resolved by a payout from Chicago taxpayers, according to the WTTW News analysis.
Repeated calls by Inspector General Deborah Witzburg for Chicago officials to systematically track the number of settled lawsuits and their costs have fallen on deaf ears.
The lack of that data makes it impossible for police brass to effectively manage the risk posed by the way the Chicago Police Department operates, Witzburg said.
City officials do not track which police officers are accused of misconduct in lawsuits that result in a jury verdict or settlement. That means officers who are repeatedly named in lawsuits that are resolved by payouts are not disciplined, retrained or offered counseling in an effort to prevent additional lawsuits.
In 2017, the Department of Justice urged city officials to “review settlements and judgments on a broader scale to spot for trends, identify officers most frequently sued, and determine ways to reduce both the cost of the cases and the underlying officer misconduct.”
There is no evidence city officials heeded that warning since the Department of Justice released its probe in January 2017 of the Chicago Police Department triggered by the police murder of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in October 2014.
The $384.2 million the city paid to resolve 539 cases between Jan. 1, 2019, and Dec. 31, 2023, includes the costs of judgements, including punitive damages, as well as settlements, plus lawyer fees, according to WTTW News’ analysis. Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot led the city for four of the five years analyzed by WTTW News, while former Mayor Rahm Emanuel was in charge between January 2019 and May 2019 and Mayor Brandon Johnson led the city between May 2023 and December 2023.
One Officer, $1.4M in Settlements
Sgt. Jerald Williams, who earns $124,854 annually and is charged with supervising lower ranking officers, was named in five lawsuits in the past five years, including two in 2023 alone, according to the analysis.
In all, Chicago taxpayers have paid nearly $1.4 million to resolve those lawsuits, with $850,000 going to Bernard Kersh, who was seriously injured by Williams.
Kersh, whom police had stopped for drinking in a CTA bus shelter, said Williams slammed him to the pavement, exacerbating an eye injury, causing a concussion and injuring his shoulder. The altercation on Thanksgiving Day 2019 was recorded by a passerby, and the viral video created a firestorm of criticism.
Williams told city officials he “executed an emergency takedown” when Kersh spit on him after licking him.
Both former Supt. David Brown and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability found Williams’ conduct violated CPD’s use of force policy and recommended he be suspended for 135 days, but it is unclear whether Williams served that suspension.
Kersh’s lawsuit identifies Williams as a mixed-martial arts fighter nicknamed “Bacon and Eggs” and accused him of using a fighting move on Kersh, who posed no threat to any officer or anyone else. Williams is credited as a fighter in the 2012 Bellator Fighting Championships, which aired as part of a pay-per-view special, according to the production's credits as listed in an online database.
In the year since the City Council voted to resolve Kersh’s lawsuit, Williams has been promoted to sergeant and banked a 6% raise, according to city records.
Chicago taxpayers paid an additional $350,000 to resolve a 2020 lawsuit prompted by a botched raid led by Williams that interrupted a 4-year-old’s birthday party. During that raid, officers pointed their guns at children, used profanity and destroyed the child’s birthday cake, according to the lawsuit.
In 2018, department leaders recommended that Williams serve a 15-day suspension for punching a man in the face while he arrested him for marijuana possession. In 2021, department leaders suspended Williams for 15 days, this time for restraining a man in a jail cell while another officer beat him.
In all, Williams has faced 22 misconduct complaints, according to records obtained by WTTW News.
Williams did not respond to an email from WTTW News seeking a response.
A spokesperson for Johnson did not respond to a request for comment about why Williams not only remains a Chicago police officer in good standing despite his extensive and expensive record of misconduct but also was promoted and given authority over other officers.
A 2017 probe by the U.S. Department of Justice found that Chicago police officers were rarely held accountable for misconduct because of badly broken systems as well as a “code of silence” among officers that allowed them to act with impunity.
Despite Mayor’s Promises, CPD Still Lacks Early Warning System
WTTW News reported in September 2023 that a system designed to flag officers with multiple complaints, like Williams, could have been rolled out citywide in May 2021 but remains in use in only one police district.
The University of Chicago Crime Lab began work on the so-called Officer Support System, also known as OSS, in 2016, and began testing it in a South Side police district in September 2020, only to face repeated and lengthy delays, caused in part by decisions by CPD leadership to transfer the staff members assigned to run the system to patrol, according to a letter obtained by WTTW News through the Freedom of Information Act.
Police reform advocates unanimously believe there is a clear need for a system that flags officers with multiple complaints and lawsuits to prevent incidents that make it impossible to restore the public’s trust in the beleaguered police department, which has faced decades of scandals, misconduct and brutality.
CPD representatives told WTTW News in September 2023 that the Officer Support System remains in the pilot phase as officials “review and assess the program and its corresponding policy to ensure it is being utilized effectively ahead of a citywide rollout.”
Nothing has changed in the more than 11 months since that statement, CPD representatives told WTTW News.
Johnson responded to WTTW News’ article by saying fulfilling the terms of the consent decree was a “top priority.”
“We are moving with expediency,” Johnson said nearly a year ago, vowing to act with more “hurriedness” than his predecessors.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
Contact Jared Rutecki: @JaredRutecki | [email protected]
