“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 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.

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.

"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.

A new annual report published Wednesday from the CPS Office of Inspector General (OIG) highlights the office’s major investigations from the previous year.

After an unrelated news conference, Mayor Brandon Johnson declined to say whether he still had confidence in Jason Lee, but praised his track record of helping progressive politicians get elected.

Employees from 13 different state agencies are involved in the fraud and have illegally taken these federal public funds, according to the OEIG, which is charged with investigating allegations of misconduct within state government. As of April, more than 60% of those implicated to date worked for the Illinois Department of Human Services, which operates mental health hospitals and developmental centers across the state.

The city is on pace to spend at least $258 million on police overtime by the end of the year, even as officials imposed limits on overtime for all city departments, except for police and the Chicago Fire Department, amid a massive budget crunch.

Cases that involved at least one officer with repeated claims of misconduct accounted for nearly 43% of the $384.2 million paid by taxpayers to resolve police misconduct cases between 2019 and 2023, according to the analysis.

The Chicago Police Department has yet to launch a new study of whether officers are efficiently and effectively deployed across the city to stop crime and respond to calls for help. “I don’t understand what the hold up is,” Ald. Matt Martin (47th Ward) told WTTW News. “This is years, if not decades, overdue.”

Investigators with CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs did not interview anyone other than the eight officers accused of belonging to the Oath Keepers, according to a 30-page report.

Chicago police are better prepared to handle the large protests and crowds expected during the upcoming Democratic National Convention, but concerns still exist around the police department’s ability to put those preparations into action, a new watchdog report found.

The Chicago Board of Ethics has fined Conyears-Ervin a total of $70,000 in the past month for a series of violations of the city's Government Ethics Ordinance. 

Investigators with CPD’s Bureau of Internal Affairs did not interview anyone other than the eight officers accused of belonging to the Oath Keepers, according to a 30-page report.

Six months ago, Supt. Larry Snelling promised the Chicago City Council he would rid the police department of officers with ties to hate groups and far-right extremist organizations after “stringent” and “thorough” investigations.