Stories by Heather Cherone

The Chicago City Council is set to vote on the proposal Wednesday, after a week-long delay fueled by outrage whipped up on social media, the budding 2027 race for mayor and the lack of trust many alderpeople have in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s ability to steer the city through rough financial seas.

Chicago officials would have an additional $87 million to spend on a host of programs designed to repair the city’s tattered social safety net, but the Chicago City Council used those funds to balance the 2025 budget and avert a property tax hike.

Inspector General Deborah Witzburg urged Mayor Brandon Johnson in July to form a task force as part of an effort to “implement a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach to preventing, identifying and eliminating extremist and anti-government activities and associations within CPD.”

The measure failed after nearly all members of the City Council’s Black Caucus voted against it because of concerns that the change would mean more fees and fines levied against Black, Latino and low-income residents.

“Reliably providing safe drinking water is one of the most basic and important government functions,” Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said. “Providing clear and readily available information in which people have reason to be confident is another.”

The Chicago City Council unanimously agreed Wednesday to pay $27 million to the family of a Chicago woman killed by a driver being chased by Chicago police, the latest massive settlement prompted by a police pursuit that violated department policy and ended with a bystander’s death.

The Department of Law “selectively acts in opposition to the OIG’s investigative work when OIG’s work may result in embarrassment or political consequences for city leaders,” Inspector General Deborah Witzburg wrote.

Civilian Office of Police Accountability Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten much of the last 12 months at odds with the city’s top cop and the head of the city’s police oversight board.

The latest survey from the monitoring team charged with enforcing the consent decree found that Chicagoans’ confidence in CPD and the reform effort is exceedingly low, despite a reform push that began six years ago.

A 20-second video released Wednesday by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office of a small City Hall room crammed with gifts his office accepted on behalf of the city is “not a substitute for public access to public property,” Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said.

No longer will gifts accepted by Chicago’s mayor on behalf of the city be covered by an “unwritten arrangement” dating back to the late 1980s during the administration of former Mayor Eugene Sawyer, Board President William Conlon said.

The proposed policy “impermissibly allows officers to use race, ethnicity, and other protected characteristics when making decisions on whether to stop, frisk or search people, in violation of federal and state law,” according to the coalition led by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

Finance Committee Chair Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd Ward) failed to hold a vote on the agreement as scheduled Monday, an indication that the deal does not have enough support to advance to the full City Council.

During the past six years taxpayers have spent at least $472.4 million to resolve police misconduct lawsuits, setting a new record, according to a WTTW News analysis.

The lawsuit is the latest indication that the Trump administration, which is attempting to strip self-proclaimed sanctuary cities of all federal funding, will target Chicago directly.

The City Council’s Finance Committee is set to consider the proposed settlement on Monday, which calls for taxpayers to pay $20 million and the city’s insurance company to pay $7 million. A final vote of the City Council could come on Feb. 19.

A Chicago Police Department spokesperson told WTTW News in a statement the department does not “utilize quotas” for traffic stops.

City Clerk Anna Valencia said she would take additional steps to ensure “this does not happen again.”

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s appearance is likely to represent a flashpoint in the ongoing battle with the GOP-controlled U.S House and the Trump administration, which is attempting to strip self-proclaimed sanctuary cities of all federal funding.

James Gibson said he implicated himself in a 1989 double murder after being burned, punched, kicked and slapped by Chicago Police detectives supervised by disgraced former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge during a three-day interrogation.

The renewed tension between Mayor Brandon Johnson and the city’s business leaders comes after Johnson endured a bruising battle over the city’s 2025 budget and is under intense pressure from President Donald Trump.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker directed state hiring officials to block the employment of anyone who took part in the attack that claimed the lives of five members of the U.S. Capitol Police and injured an additional 174 officers.

“At the point of which we go for this revenue again, let’s not allow the interests of the corporations as well as the ultra rich to dictate what working people deserve in this city,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “We have to pass Bring Chicago Home.”

"These gifts are, by definition, city property; if they are squirreled away and hidden from view, people are only left to assume the worst about how they are being handled," Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said.

Property tax bills for Cook County residents are available online at cookcountytreasurer.com and should hit mailboxes this week.

Despite the top cop’s attempt to reassure the tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants and their relatives who live in Chicago, Trump administration officials have repeatedly vowed to deport everyone who is in the United States without authorization.