Stories by Heather Cherone

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.

U.S. District Court Judge John Kness has yet to set a trial date for Austin, who pleaded not guilty after her June 2021 indictment. The hearing, which lasted less than 15 minutes, was the first time Austin has appeared in a federal courtroom since her indictment.

Former Chicago Police Sgt. Cassandra Williams, who worked for the Chicago Police Department for 32 years, said she faced severe harassment and retaliation for filing a complaint against her commanding officer, Lt. Jason Brown, who remains on the force. “I crossed the blue line,” Williams said.

By the contract's final day, Chicago taxpayers will have paid more than $53 million since 2018 for a system that Mayor Brandon Johnson said never provided a return on the city’s investment or the results that it promised.

A Cook County judge Monday allowed proceedings before the Chicago Police Board to resume as he prepares to rule on an effort backed by the city’s largest police union to upend the system used for 60 years to punish officers.

Wrongful convictions have long been the most expensive kind of police misconduct in Chicago, costing taxpayers $29.25 million in 2024, or nearly 40% of the total amount spent to resolve allegations of police misconduct, according to WTTW News’ analysis.

The proposal known as Bring Chicago Home will remain on the ballot, but the results will not be tallied and reported unless the judge’s decision is overturned by a state appeals court.

Closing the four shelters will allow the city to avoid paying $19 million to lease the facilities, staff them and provide food and laundry services, officials said.

The new regulations ban new dollar stores — defined as stores offering an assortment of goods, most advertised at less than $5 — from opening within one mile of another dollar store owned by the same company.

The proposal, now in the hands of the Chicago City Council, would phase out the city’s decades-long reliance on tax-increment financing districts and reshape the way Chicago uses its financial resources to spur redevelopment and eradicate blight.

Chicago first entered into a contract with ShotSpotter in 2017. The controversial technology relies on microphones and sensors to identify the sound of gunfire and alert law enforcement.

“I’m going to spend all that money, I can assure you of that,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

After a spirited debate, Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd Ward) — once the leading progressive voice on the Chicago City Council — was the only alderperson to change their position since the December vote.

That cost is on top of the $150 million already set aside in Chicago’s 2024 budget, the $100 million earmarked in Cook County’s budget to care for the migrants, and $160 million in state funds Pritzker agreed to spend to care for the migrants in mid-November, officials said.

Voters in two precincts of the 7th Ward will be asked whether Ald. Greg Mitchell (7th Ward) and Mayor Brandon Johnson should “support a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) ordinance to prevent the displacement of renters, condo & home owners in South Shore in light of the impact of the Obama Center and growing development in the area.”

Chicago will stop using the ShotSpotter technology by Sept. 22 — one month after the Democratic National Convention takes place in Chicago and after the summer months that are often the most violent period of the year, Mayor Brandon Johnson announced.

Chicago spent less than $160 million on a host of programs including affordable housing, mental health, violence prevention, youth job programs and help for unhoused Chicagoans through Dec. 31, 2023, according to reports to the federal government.

The proposed settlement is set to be considered Wednesday by the City Council’s Finance Committee. If approved, a final vote of the City Council could come as soon as Thursday.

The Chicago Police Department would be required to immediately launch a new study of whether officers are efficiently and effectively deployed across the city, under a measure set to be considered by a key City Council committee.

The Police Board is blocked from holding any hearings until Feb. 24, with the next hearing in the lawsuit brought by the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge 7, set for Feb. 26, according to the Cook County judge's order.

Chicago is now the largest American city to adopt a cease-fire resolution, joining Minneapolis, San Francisco, Oakland, Atlanta and Detroit.

Whether the officer who shot and killed 13-year-old Adam Toledo is publicly held accountable for the teen’s death depends on whether the Chicago City Council votes this week to reaffirm their rejection of an effort to upend the system used for 60 years to punish officers.

Mayor Brandon Johnson did not lift the requirement that migrants leave city-run shelters in 60 days — instead, the nearly 14,200 men, women and children in city shelters will have longer to find more permanent housing.

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

Mayor Brandon Johnson said state officials have not worked fast enough to help migrants move out of Chicago’s shelters into permanent homes, or fulfill promises to open 2,000 new shelter beds.

Brandon Johnson, a Democrat, is now the mayor of the biggest American city to call for a cease-fire, putting him at odds with President Joe Biden and most members of the Democratic Party.