Stories by Heather Cherone

Limiting the city’s watchdog to two terms would bring “stability, order, independence” to the office, which oversees all city departments and contractors as well as the mayor’s office, City Council and its committees, current Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said.

The appointment of Natalie Toro to represent a wide swath of Chicago’s Northwest Side in the Illinois Senate sets up a fierce battle next spring as the progressive political organizations and labor unions that helped elect Mayor Brandon Johnson push to consolidate their power.

“This can set a model for the rest of the city,” Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th Ward) said, envisioning a similar shelter in each of Chicago’s 50 wards.

The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability is scheduled to announce the finalists at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Kennedy-King College, one day before the deadline imposed by city ordinance for it to act.

Investigators are probing allegations that more than one officer assigned to a West Side police station had sexual contact with at least one of the migrants forced to sleep on the floor of the station, the Civilian Office of Police Accountability confirmed.

The 223-page report memorializes the work of 11 subcommittees that began meeting in mid-April, and dovetails with much of progressive agenda laid out by Johnson and echoes his call for new investment on Chicago’s South and West sides. 

In all, Chicago owes $35.4 billion to its four employee pension funds representing police officers, firefighters, municipal employees and laborers, according to the 2022 Certified Annual Financial Report. 

“Like everything I inherited, I’m a teacher, I will assess and grade it," Mayor Brandon Johnson said, promising an “open process where other folks get a chance to weigh in.”

The last time Chicago saw nearly 9 inches of rain was Aug. 13-14, 1987, according to the National Weather Service. On average, the city gets 3.7 inches of rain during all of July, according to the National Weather Service.

The number of people shot in Chicago dropped more than 10% in the first six months of this year, as compared with the same period last year, according to police data. The number of shootings is down 6.4%, according to police data.

The lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois accuses the Chicago Police Department of making more than 1 million traffic stops between 2016 and 2022 based on dubious evidence of minor violations that took direct aim at Black and Latino Chicagoans but spared White Chicagoans.

The number of homes searched by Chicago Police officers dropped nearly 90% since 2019, the same year a botched raid left social worker Anjanette Young handcuffed while naked and pleading for help, according to new data.

The seventh semiannual report from the team led by attorney Maggie Hickey urges police brass and city leaders to “urgently address” staffing shortages, a lack of supervision for officers and poor data collection, analysis and management.

The agency’s substantial backlog — made up of cases more than 18 months old — is compromising COPA’s ability to investigate more recent complaints alleging significant misconduct by Chicago Police officers, Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten said.

Two months after Chicago officials declared a renewed surge of migrants had created a “humanitarian crisis,” 650 men, women and children are still being forced to sleep on the floor of police stations across the city, officials said Wednesday.

Interim Chicago Police Supt. Fred Waller said additional patrols will be added downtown, on CTA trains and buses and near Navy Pier, which will host a fireworks show at 9 p.m. Saturday.

It will be up to Garien Gatewood, the city’s new deputy mayor for community safety, to make good on Mayor Brandon Johnson’s promise to take a new approach to the surge of crime and violence that took hold in Chicago. 

Chicago Police Department leaders offered no “legitimate rationale” for the racial disparity to the independent monitoring team charged with enforcing court-ordered reforms.

That expected surplus will more than offset a projected budget gap of $82.6 million during the 2024 fiscal year, more evidence that Cook County’s finances remain on “sturdy” financial footing in the wake of the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s mayoral campaign platform called for an end to the tipped minimum wage, noting that those who rely on tips to earn a living wage are more likely to be Black and Latina women.

In all, the payments approved Wednesday are equivalent to 11% of the city’s annual $82 million budget to cover the cost of police misconduct lawsuits.

Chicago officials will use a $6.8 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to build eight new public monuments, including a monument to the more than 100 Black men who were tortured by Chicago Police officers trained by Jon Burge, a disgraced Chicago police commander.

The working group formed by Mayor Brandon Johnson to tackle Chicago’s acutely underfunded pensions is set to meet for the first time this week to confront one of the major fiscal challenges facing Chicago’s new leader.

Chicago Police Sgt. Michael Vitellaro, who was stripped of his police powers after being charged, still faces discipline as a result of a probe of the incident by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which was completed in March.

Former Ald. Ed Burke will start receiving pension payments of $8,027 per month in August, and they will continue for the rest of his life, according to records obtained by WTTW News from the Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago.

It is not clear exactly when Bally’s will be able to open a temporary casino in the century-old Shriner’s temple at 600 N. Wabash Ave., with its distinctive domed ceilings and stained-glass windows. A Chicago landmark since 2001, the temple was most recently home to a Bloomingdale’s furniture store.