Politics
After City Council Rejects Effort to Crack Down on CPD Overtime, Johnson Imposes New Limits
Video: Mayor Brandon Johnson appears on “Chicago Tonight” on Dec. 23, 2025. (Produced by Heather Cherone and Joel Ortiz)
Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order Tuesday designed to prevent the Chicago Police Department from spending unlimited sums of taxpayer money on overtime after the Chicago City Council declined to approve his crackdown.
One of the last changes made to the alternative budget proposal 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.
Johnson’s executive order seeks to impose new limits on police overtime spending without the approval of the City Council.
Read the full executive order.
The order is designed to give “greater control and clarity” to CPD’s use of overtime, Johnson said.
Johnson told WTTW News’ “Chicago Tonight” that it was also necessary to reduce the number of hours worked by officers to ensure they do not experience burnout and other health concerns.
In all CPD’s budget will swell to $2.1 billion in 2026, 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.
The city budget, which will take effect Jan. 1, will 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.
CPD is set to exceed its annual overtime budget for the ninth straight year, records show.
Through the end of November, CPD spent $233 million on overtime, according to records published by Inspector General Deborah Witzburg.
Read more: Chicago Spent $212M on Police Overtime So Far This Year, 6% More Than New Limit Set for 2026
During the first 11 months of 2024, CPD spent $253 million on overtime, according to the Office of the Inspector General.
Police overtime spending is down approximately 8% in 2025 compared to 2024, records show.
Under the executive order, CPD officials must notify the mayor three months before it exhausts its $200 million budget for overtime that it needs more funds.
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.”
CPD spent more than its City Council-approved budget in five of the last six years, costing Chicago taxpayers more than $501.2 million in unanticipated expenses, records show.
In addition to spending at least $133.5 million more on overtime than its 2025 budget allows, CPD has also spent at least $300 million to resolve lawsuits alleging officers committed a wide range of misconduct, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.
That is more than triple the $82.5 million set aside in the city’s 2025 budget to cover the cost of resolving police misconduct lawsuits.
CPD’s budget accounts for one-third of the city’s $6 billion corporate fund, which the City Council has wide discretion to spend.
CPD overspent its 2024 budget by a total of $204 million, records show. That includes exceeding its personnel budget by more than $128 million, according to the 2024 audit, even though the department has approximately 1,000 vacant positions, records show.
Chicago Police Department data shows there have been nearly 35% fewer shootings, and homicides are down 30% and robberies dropped 35%.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
