Politics
Chicago Spent $224.4M on Police Overtime in 9 Months, 12% More Than Its Annual Overtime Budget: Watchdog
(WTTW News)
The city of Chicago has spent $224.4 million on overtime for members of the Chicago Police Department during the first nine months of 2026 — 12% more than the entire annual budget the Chicago City Council set aside for police overtime as part of the city’s spending plan, according to records published by the city’s watchdog.
The latest tally means CPD has exceeded its annual overtime budget for the 10th straight year, despite repeated promises from Mayor Brandon Johnson to reign in police overtime spending, according to a database published by Inspector General David Glockner.
CPD spent approximately $224,000 more on overtime during the first nine months of 2026 than it did during the same period in 2025, according to the inspector general’s data.
CPD’s budget for 2026 is $2.1 billion, including $200 million to pay members of the police department to work more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a week, records show.
In all, Chicago taxpayers spent $285.9 million on overtime for members of the Chicago Police Department during 2025, according to the inspector general.
To finish 2026 on budget, CPD would have had to reduce its spending on overtime by 30% as compared with what the department spent in 2025, based on the data published by the inspector general.
Former Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling assured city officials during last fall’s tense budget negotiations that CPD was on track to spend less than $200 million on overtime next year, former Budget Director Annette Guzman told reporters.
“The Chicago Police Department has a duty to balance both the needs of public safety and our fiscal responsibility,” according to a statement from a department spokesperson sent to WTTW News. “Overtime is used judiciously to ensure we have sufficient resources available to address day-to-day operational needs, as well as maintain safety at large-scale events and incidents. CPD will continue to review its use of overtime to ensure it is being used appropriately.”
According to a CPD database, the department spent $133 million on overtime during the first eight months of 2026 that was not set to be reimbursed by sister agencies like the Chicago Transit Authority or taken as compensatory time by officers.
That is approximately 8% less than what the department spent during the same period a year ago, according to a database published by CPD.
The department exceeded its monthly budget for overtime that will not be reimbursed or taken as compensatory time in March, April, May, July and August and has not yet published data for September when it expected to spend no more than $22.04 million on overtime, according to department records.
A “more accurate” way to gauge how much CPD is spending on overtime “takes reimbursable overtime into account,” as the database published by CPD does, in contrast to the inspector general’s database, which includes the total amount earned by officers working overtime, according to a statement from a department spokesperson.
According to the inspector general’s database, CPD spent $31.6 million on overtime in September, more than in any other month this year.
The city is on pace to spend approximately $274 million on police overtime by the end of the year, according to data published by the inspector general, despite Johnson signing an executive order designed to prevent CPD from spending unlimited sums of taxpayer money on overtime after the Chicago City Council declined to approve his crackdown.
Opponents of the mayor removed a requirement from the city’s 2026 spending plan to require CPD brass to publicly ask the City Council for more money if the department exhausts its $200 million budget for overtime from the spending plan that Johnson allowed to take effect over his objections.
Johnson signed an executive order requiring CPD leaders to notify the mayor’s office three months before the department 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.
“Under the Johnson administration, we’ve put stronger controls and greater oversight in place to manage CPD overtime, including a public CPD overtime dashboard and an executive order requiring CPD to notify the administration if it expects to exceed its overtime appropriation,” a spokesperson for the mayor said in a statement to WTTW News.
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, department officials have told the City Council.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
