Stories by Heather Cherone

The city is on pace to spend at least $258 million on police overtime by the end of the year, even as officials imposed limits on overtime for all city departments, except for police and the Chicago Fire Department, amid a massive budget crunch.

Chicago taxpayers have paid $74.4 million since 2019 to resolve lawsuits involving police pursuits, with the city’s insurance coverage paying an additional $25 million, according to a WTTW News analysis.

The 6-0 vote by the board overseeing the Chicago Public Schools came two days after CEO Pedro Martinez announced he had refused Mayor Brandon Johnson’s request to resign, an unprecedented show of public defiance by the head of a city agency toward the mayor.

During the past week, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez has written three times to parents, staff and students, and in each letter, he has promised that he will not close any schools while at the helm of CPS, even as he acknowledged compiling a list of schools that could be closed as part of an effort to compile a five-year strategic plan.

Mayor Brandon Johnson burned a significant amount of political capital to convince the Chicago City Council in April to appropriate an additional $70 million, which the city did not need after a feared surge of migrants failed to materialize.

Deputy Mayor of Community Safety Garien Gatewood told WTTW News’ “Chicago Tonight” program on Monday that city officials are excited to see what kind of technology is available.

Former Ald. Ed Burke is in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at Federal Correctional Institution Thomson in Thomson, Illinois, nearly 150 miles west of his beloved hometown. He will begin his two-year prison sentence.

In each of the five cases, Inspector General Deborah Witzburg informed Civilian Office of Police Accountability Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten that the agency known as COPA had erred when it closed those cases because they involved serious allegations of police misconduct.

While none of the officers who shot at Reed, who was hit 13 times, have returned to active duty, Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling has refused Civilian Office of Police Accountability Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten’s call to relieve them of their police powers.

A spokesperson for Mayor Brandon Johnson declined to comment on whether he had asked CPS CEO Pedro Martinez to resign, citing the mayor’s policy of not commenting on personnel matters. A spokesperson for Martinez declined to comment.

The Chicago City Council voted 44-3 to approve what supporters dubbed the Northwest Side Housing Preservation Ordinance, which expands two pilot programs that began in 2021 and makes them a permanent part of the city code.

Calling the measure illegal, Mayor Brandon Johnson said he would veto it.

The revised governmental ethics ordinance prevents what Board of Ethics Chair Steve Berlin called the “erasure of 13 years of reform.”

During the past eight years, city officials have paid at least $11.2 million to hire private attorneys to defend former Sgt. Ronald Watts and the officers he supervised, despite his criminal conviction and the hundreds of people he helped convict who have been exonerated.

The showdown set for Wednesday is the latest inflection point in the monthslong debate over whether ShotSpotter is an irreplaceable tool in the fight against gun violence or a waste of taxpayer funds.

During the first six months of 2024, Chicago taxpayers paid $40.5 million to resolve lawsuits alleging police officers committed misconduct, records show.

The pilot program launched by federal proscecutors Chicago appears to be the latest attempt to root out the deeply entrenched culture of corruption that has long defined local and state politics.

In an interview with WTTW News, Kennedy Bartley, 29, the managing deputy for external relations, said she feels deep regret about what she said in the wake of the August 2019 killing of Elijah McClain, of Aurora, Colorado. She declined to express regret for posting “From the river to the sea. Palestine will be free. Amen!”

In all, Chicago taxpayers spent $197.8 million to resolve 42 lawsuits brought by more than three dozen people wrongfully convicted based on evidence gathered by the Chicago Police Department between Jan. 1, 2019, and April 30, 2024, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.

U.S. District Court Judge John F. Kness ordered former Ald. Carrie Austin, 75, to undergo a physical examination by an expert doctor to determine whether she is too ill to stand trial, as her lawyers insist.

If the verdict is upheld, it would be equivalent to more than 60% of Chicago’s annual $82 million budget to cover the cost of police misconduct lawsuits.

The city's inspector general said it was “troubling” that the city did not hold the firm that leases the city's parking meters accountable for seven years.

Shelters in Pilsen and in the West Loop will close Oct. 1 and a shelter in Hyde Park will close Oct. 24. All of the residents will be offered space in one of the 14 shelters the city will continue to operate, officials said.

Three and a half years after 13-year-old Adam Toledo’s death spurred demonstrations and renewed calls for police reform, the lawsuit filed by his parents is set to go to trial Nov. 6, ramping up the pressure on lawyers for the city to negotiate a settlement in the high-profile case or face a trial that could lead to a multimillion-dollar jury verdict.

“The Chicago Police Department is transforming,” said Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling, who was present during a majority of the protests and wore a body camera. “This is a transformation.”

The federal judge who ruled Ald. Jim Gardiner (45th Ward) violated the First Amendment by blocking six critics from his official Facebook page admonished him Friday for approaching her in June at a funeral even as the case remains pending.