Politics
Johnson Vows to Crack Down on Police Overtime Spending in 2026, As CPD Budget Swells to $2.1B
(Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed budget for 2026 would impose new limits on overtime spending by the Chicago Police Department while acknowledging it was unrealistic to expect CPD to spend less than $200 million next year to compensate officers for working extra hours.
In all, CPD’s budget is set to swell to $2.1 billion, increasing by $37.9 million to cover the cost of salary increases required by agreements with unions representing members. That includes an estimated savings of $30 million from a partial hiring freeze of long vacant positions, officials said.
Johnson’s proposed spending plan would double CPD’s overtime budget from $100 million to $200 million, the first increase since 2020, when the budget for police overtime went from $95 million to $100 million, records show.
Budget Director Annette Guzman told reporters Supt. Larry Snelling said he was confident CPD would spend less than $200 million on overtime next year. However, Chicago taxpayers have already paid $190.1 million to officers for working extra hours through September, according to a database published by Inspector General Deborah Witzburg.
CPD has spent at least $17 million and as much as $27.5 million every month on overtime, according to the watchdog’s database. That means CPD is on track to spend at least $241 million on overtime by the end of the year, according to a WTTW analysis.
The spending plan will require CPD brass to submit monthly reports about its overtime spending to the City Council, and require the City Council to hold hearings every three months “to ensure transparency and accountability.”
Although a similar ordinance requires the City Council to hold hearings twice a year to look into efforts to comply with a court order requiring officers to stop routinely violating Black and Latino residents’ constitutional rights, it failed to hold those hearings for 15 months.
If CPD exhausts its budget for overtime, as it did this year by June, it will have to ask the City Council to appropriate more funds, officials said.
CPD has exceeded its annual overtime budget for seven straight years.
In 2024, CPD spent a total of $273.8 million on overtime, 6.5% less than in 2023, according to a WTTW News analysis.
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, CPD officials said.
Johnson said his third budget would continue transforming the Chicago Police Department into an agency better prepared to take a new approach to public safety by requiring that sworn officers perform only law enforcement duties, not administrative work.
That will save Chicago taxpayers $100 million over the next decade, officials said.
In addition, leaders of the Office of Public Safety Administration will report quarterly to the City Council on efforts to reduce the number of officers on medical leave and long-term disability. That has become an increasing source of frustration for members of the Chicago City Council.
Era Patterson, the department’s executive director, told alderpeople in September she was hopeful an ongoing audit would give officials a roadmap to reduce costs and get more officers back to work quicker.
CPD leaders will also be required to submit monthly reports to the City Council on efforts to create a system designed to alert supervisors about which officers have been the subject of repeated police misconduct allegations.
“The system will support 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 must implement that system under the terms of the consent decree, the federal court order designed to compel the department to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers.
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.
That system could have been rolled out citywide in May 2021, but it remains in use in only two of Chicago’s 22 police districts. CPD officials are developing a new system, officials have told the judge overseeing the reform push.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
