Stories by Heather Cherone

The ACLU of Illinois sued the city three years ago on behalf of five Chicagoans, calling the Chicago Police Department's use of traffic stops the latest chapter in CPD's “long and sordid history” of racist discrimination.

The question — posed by Mayor Brandon Johnson — will fill the final spot on the November ballot, ending a proxy fight between the mayor and his increasingly emboldened opponents on the Chicago City Council, even though the results will only carry symbolic weight.

The mayor’s proposal drew swift and vehement opposition from landlords and business groups, with whom he has long been at loggerheads.

If the board’s decision stands, Patty García will have a much smoother path to replacing U.S. Rep. Jesús “Chuy” García, her former boss, in Congress.

The policy was updated nearly four months after Mayor Brandon Johnson told reporters existing CPD policy complied with an executive order he promised Chicagoans would lay “the groundwork to prosecute Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents for criminal misconduct.”

CPD spent approximately $700,000 more on overtime during the first six months of 2026 than it did during the same period in 2025, according to a database published by Inspector General David Glockner.

An analysis is ongoing to determine when — and how much — Chicago can afford to send to its pension funds in addition to the $2.85 billion that state law requires the city to contribute this year, officials said.

The fight over which questions will appear on November’s ballot erupted into a proxy fight between the mayor and his increasingly emboldened opponents on the City Council, even though the results will only carry symbolic weight.

The eight officers obtained loans worth approximately $283,000 after making “materially false statements in their applications for forgiveness of the loans,” according to the report.

Another member of CPD was fired after showing other employees of the police department photos of the teen dressed in the Nazi uniform while at work, creating “an offensive work environment,” according to the inspector general’s report.

It will be up to Chicago's next top cop to complete the hundreds of tasks laid out by the nearly seven-and-a-half-year-old court order while making sure the changes stick — and put an end to the decades of scandals, misconduct and brutality that have defined CPD and cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Finance Committee Chair Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd Ward) said she was calling off the vote amid “ongoing discussions” with Stonepeak Partners about new information.

A final vote on the subsidy that will make it possible for a new $750 million Chicago Fire stadium to be built south of the Loop is set for Wednesday.

Chicago taxpayers paid three times more to resolve police misconduct lawsuits in 2025, as compared with 2024, according to the annual report detailing the cost of lawsuits filed against the Chicago Police Department.

Wrongful convictions have long been the most expensive kind of police misconduct in Chicago, costing taxpayers $131.5 million in the first six months of 2026, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.

“I want to say this clearly,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “There were other options. We did not need to cede to big money interests and fall back on the tired practice of balancing budgets on the backs of working people.”

Chicago Park District rules prohibit parks from being renamed for anyone who has not yet been dead a year. The rules also prohibit parks from being named for anyone endorsing “a specific religious affiliation.”

The City Council’s Ethics and Government Oversight Committee’s endorsement sends the nonbinding resolution calling for the resignation of the top federal prosector in Chicago to the full City Council for a final vote on July 15.

The City Council’s Ethics and Government Oversight Committee voted unanimously to advance a measure that would amend the city’s Governmental Ethics Ordinance to ban employees from using insider information to bet on prediction markets.

The Chicago Police Department has overspent its budget five years in a row, according to Chicago’s annual financial reports.

Chicago’s pension debt has grown by nearly 11% since 2020, adding approximately $3.5 billion to the city’s debt, records show.

The city’s 2026 budget set aside just $82.5 million for police misconduct settlements, and authorized officials to borrow an additional $283.3 million to cover the soaring cost of lawsuits alleging wrongdoing by police officers, records show.

Approximately 7,000 unpermitted sweepstakes machines operate in all kinds of businesses across the city — including in bars, restaurants, gas stations, laundromats and convenience stores — but are concentrated on the South and West sides.

Marcel Brown's lawsuit was resolved with the largest payment Chicago taxpayers have ever made to compensate someone wrongfully convicted based on evidence developed by Chicago police, according to a WTTW News analysis.

It is not clear how — or why — Benchmark Analytics was selected by officials in the Johnson administration in the fall of 2024 to create the system required by the federal court order known as the consent decree.

The new law will close a “loophole” that contributed to children, teens and young adults ingesting misleading or poorly labeled products, Gov. JB Pritzker said.