It took less than five months for the Chicago Police Department to exhaust the $100 million earmarked for overtime set by the Chicago City Council as part of the city’s 2023 budget, according to data obtained by WTTW News through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The city and its lawyers will now have to convince a jury that two officers did nothing wrong when they fired 16 shots at Darius Cole-Garrit, 21, at 9:30 p.m. Aug. 19, 2014, after a brief foot chase on the city's Far South Side.

A decade-long push to reopen public mental health clinics closed in 2011 and expand efforts to respond to 911 calls for help not with police officers but with social workers and counselors was center stage at City Hall Monday.

The 22-26 vote represented a rare, if not unprecedented, decision by the City Council to reject a proposed settlement after it was endorsed by the Finance Committee and the mayor. 

Taken together, the two proposals are likely to form the foundation of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s agenda when it comes to labor. A former organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, Johnson enjoyed the unanimous support of Chicago’s progressive labor organizations.

The three finalists for the city’s top cop were selected from a total of 54 applicants by the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) after unprecedented community and police input. Here’s how they did it.

Despite what city officials called an “all hands on deck” approach, the number of migrants still being forced to sleep on floors at police stations and O’Hare International Airport has grown more than 45% in the past three weeks.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration recently released a transition report, “A Blueprint for Creating a More Just and Vibrant City for All,” the work of his 400-member transition committee.

The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability recommended two veterans of the beleaguered Chicago Police Department and one outsider.

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.

“I think this might be the first time in CPS history … that you have a board that’s made up of almost every one of us has some experience with CPS — either we’re parents, we’ve served on (Local School Councils), we were students or we were educators,” new board appointee Mariela Morales said

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.