“This has been a situation that has gotten increasingly out of control,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said about the massive bills for police overtime. “The superintendent and I, we both agree on that.”
Investigations
The Chicago Police Department spent $293 million on overtime last year, 40% more than in 2022 and nearly three times the $100 million earmarked for police overtime set by the Chicago City Council as part of the city’s 2023 budget, according to data obtained by WTTW News.
Illegally delayed responses are a chronic problem with the CTA’s FOIA office. Other news organizations and advocacy groups have also dinged the agency for its FOIA transparency failures. Despite not sending information on operator working hours as required, available information indicates the CTA continues to rely on overtime.
The Chicago Police Department has fully met just 6% of the consent decree’s requirements, according to the most recent report by the team monitoring CPD’s progress.
Cook County Jail provides medications for opioid use disorder to incarcerated people. Where frustration comes from advocates — and local officials — is the limitations of the Illinois Department of Corrections’ medication programming in prisons.
The Illinois Department of Corrections has awarded a new contract to the controversial Wexford Health Sources, the same private health care provider that’s been handling medical care in the state’s prison system since 2011.
Files released to WTTW News in public records requests identify 42 district security personnel disciplined between January and October of 2023. The records included individuals terminated in cases with a controversial video in Albany Park, and a sexual assault investigation in West Ridge.
Cases that involved at least one officer with repeated claims of misconduct accounted for 60% of the cost borne by taxpayers to resolve police misconduct cases between 2019 and 2022, according to the analysis by WTTW News.
Hilco to Pay $12.25M Over Botched Smokestack Implosion in Little Village. Here’s How to File a Claim
In April 2020, a smokestack implosion in Little Village blanketed the community in dust, endangering the health of residents during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, eligible Little Village residents have until March 26 to file claims for compensation.
Fewer than 2% of Chicago’s signalized intersections have an accessible pedestrian signal that provides auditory and tactile guidance to blind, low-vision and deafblind pedestrians — despite more than two decades of requests and years of internal acknowledgement from city staffers about the need for such accommodations.
The Illinois secretary of state’s office, which oversees a number of library grant programs, said the new law does apply to prison libraries as they are eligible for grants.
A data analysis by WTTW News and the Hyde Park Herald/South Side Weekly found the disparity between access to quality nursing home care for Black and White Chicagoans is stark, with highly rated homes concentrated on the city’s North Side and housing majority White residents.
The story of one Indiana store demonstrates how the more than 60,000 gun retailers in America have little financial incentive to say no to questionable buyers and face limited penalties for failing to prevent illegal transactions.
Following a Farragut Academy employee’s arrest, an examination of his criminal history raises questions of whether the district was or should have been aware of his 25 past cases for activity like burglary and aggravated assault.
Despite scores of noise complaints from residents jolted awake by garbage trucks, private trash haulers have been slapped with just five tickets for illegal pickups during quiet hours over the last two years, according to a WTTW News data analysis.
The man’s brief tenure as an officer ended after he testified as a witness in a sexual assault case for the defense without informing the city. He worked for years at schools including Yates and Amundsen as both a coach and a security guard before his suspension.