More than 4,900 members of the Chicago Police Department are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or have refused to disclose their vaccination status to city officials, one month after the deadline set by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, according to data released Monday by city officials.
Chicago Fire Department


More than 35.6% of the Chicago Police department — 4,543 employees — are in jeopardy of being disciplined and eventually fired for failing to disclose their vaccination status to the city.

The lack of data collected by officials makes it impossible to determine whether the Chicago Fire Department meets national standards for getting to medical emergencies and fires, according to Inspector General Joseph Ferguson, who will leave office Friday at the end of his third term in office.

Aldermen are poised to settle a lawsuit alleging that four paramedics were sexually harassed by fellow members of the Chicago Fire Department — three by the same person — and another was retaliated against for reporting that she had been harassed.

Construction quietly began on the $95 million facility in West Garfield Park in January and is set to be completed in the fall of 2022, officials said.

Annette Nance-Holt's pending confirmation will be “yet another crack in that glass ceiling,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Friday.

The inspector general released an audit earlier this week that found that the department’s rules designed to prevent discrimination and sexual harassment are “insufficient.”

Policies governing the Chicago Fire Department—which is 90% male and 66% white—may comply with federal, state and local laws but they “are insufficient,” according to an audit released Wednesday by Inspector General Joseph Ferguson.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she was disappointed that Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law that gives a subset of Chicago firefighters the same retirement package as their peers, saying it will “result in a deeper financial burden to the taxpayers of Chicago.” Days earlier, he signed another law Lightfoot had pressured him to reject.

Some retired firefighters could see their pensions grow after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a measure to boost the annual cost-of-living increase added to their checks. Mayor Lori Lightfoot said the measure would create an “unfunded mandate” that would force Chicago officials to raise taxes or cut services.

Aldermen advanced an agreement Thursday that would give Chicago firefighters $95 million in back pay, but puts off fraught negotiations over how fire stations should be staffed.

The family of a 55-year-old Chicago man who died five hours after paramedics were called to his West Garfield Park home but left without treating him should be paid $200,000, city lawyers recommended.

More members of the Chicago Police Department have become ill than any other city department during the pandemic, with 414 officers testing positive for COVID-19 as of Monday, according to city data.

While most Chicago residents are staying home to avoid contracting or spreading COVID-19, the city’s first responders are as busy as ever – and they’ve been hit hard.

The Chicago Fire Department has long been overwhelmingly white, but that’s changing, in part due to discrimination lawsuits and, more recently, with the help of group that mentors and trains young first responders.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel says there could be “serious consequences” after five Chicago Fire Department paramedics filed a lawsuit alleging ongoing sexual harassment in the workplace.