Politics
CPD Internal Affairs Complaints Hit Record High in 2025, Fueling Backlog: Data
(WTTW News)
The number of internal affairs complaints filed against Chicago Police Department officers hit a record high in 2025, fueling a growing backlog that has made it nearly impossible to hold officers accountable for misconduct, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office told the federal judge overseeing the ongoing effort to reform the department.
CPD must work faster to complete internal affairs investigations, Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling acknowledged during a hearing on Tuesday about the city’s progress in complying with the court order known as the consent decree, which requires CPD to overhaul the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers.
More than 5,300 complaints were made to the Bureau of Internal Affairs in 2025, according to a database maintained by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, the agency better known as COPA, which is charged with investigating serious police misconduct.
Since 2021, the number of internal affairs complaints has jumped 26.7%, even as the number of complaints increased by less than 1% from 2024 to 2025, according to city data.
Internal affairs investigators are tasked with probing allegations of criminal activity, operational violations, theft or property misuse, substance abuse, residency violations, and medical leave abuse, records show.
Of the 1,508 internal affairs complaints under investigation as of Dec. 29, 47% are more than six months old, with nearly a quarter of those complaints more than a year old, according to data presented to U.S. District Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer.
“These delays represent an ongoing and serious concern regarding accountability,” Assistant Illinois Attorney General Emily Hirsch told Pallmeyer. “They threaten the morale of department members who are subject to the uncertainty of lengthy, unresolved investigations. They also undermine discipline, which may not be imposed until many years after the incident, making the sanction less effective at correcting behavior. Often, delays mean that officers will experience no consequences at all. And delaying investigations for months or years signals to community members that the department does not take their complaints seriously. This erodes community trust, undermines procedural justice, and makes the department as a whole less transparent and accountable to the public.”
Just 35% of the 834 probes completed by the Bureau of Internal Affairs in 2024 took six months or less, as required by the consent decree, Hirsch said.
Those delays are caused by the Bureau of Internal Affairs’ “severe staffing shortage” and can only be addressed by filling long-vacant positions, Hirsch said.
CPD Deputy Chief Traci Walker said the command staff had taken several steps to address the backlog, including stepping up efforts to hire 25 non-sworn investigators this year.
More than 28% of the positions within the Bureau of Internal Affairs are vacant, Walker said during the hearing.
In addition, sergeants assigned to the city’s 22 police districts who are charged with investigating these complaints are “frequently tasked with other responsibilities, leaving them without time to complete their investigations,” Walker said.
An under-development CPD policy “will clearly establish that an accountability sergeant’s primary responsibility is the timely completion of their investigations,” Walker said.
CPD must pick up the pace of internal affairs investigations, Snelling said.
“Those investigations have to be done timely and they have to be taken seriously across the board,” Snelling told Pallmeyer. “When we’re doing these investigations, we want to get them done as quickly as possible because if there’s a sustained finding, we want to be able to apply training or discipline as quickly as possible.”
Snelling said he would start holding the commanders of Chicago’s 22 police districts accountable for internal affairs investigations that are not completed in accordance with the consent decree.
While the Bureau of Internal Affairs investigates the majority of complaints filed against officers, COPA probes the most serious allegations, including; claims of excessive force, bias-based verbal abuse, firearm discharges, deaths or serious injuries in custody, sexual misconduct, and improper searches or seizures, records show.
COPA received 976 complaints in 2025, an 11.8% decrease as compared with 2024, when the number of complaints set a new record, according to city data.
The number of complaints filed with COPA has been essentially flat since 2021, rising just 2%, according to city data.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
