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.”

The first-of-its-kind audit by Inspector General Deborah Witzburg of the city’s workers compensation system found “major improvement” in the system that paid $73.5 million to resolve approximately 3,700 claims in 2022.

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. 

None of the allegations examined by the Bureau of Internal Affairs were sustained, and the investigation announced by Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling has been closed, a spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department told WTTW News.

Nearly $2 million of that toll went to pay private lawyers to defend the conduct of CPD officers from late May until mid-August 2020, one of the most tumultuous periods in Chicago history, according to records obtained by WTTW News.

The board found Conyears-Ervin committed 12 total violations of Chicago’s Governmental Ethics Ordinance for violating her fiduciary duty to the city, for the unauthorized use of city property and prohibited political activity.

A 2016 probe by the U.S. Department of Justice found that Chicago police officers were rarely held accountable for misconduct because of badly broken systems as well as a “code of silence” among officers that allowed them to act with impunity. CPD has fully complied with just 6% of the court order known as the consent decree designed to require the police department to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers.

The Chicago Police Department spent $293 million on overtime last year, 40% more than in 2022 and nearly three times the $100 million earmarked for police overtime set by the Chicago City Council as part of the city’s 2023 budget, according to data obtained by WTTW News.

The cancelation of the meeting leaves the pending probe against City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin up in the air, four months after the Ethics Board ratified the determination that she fired two city employees after they warned her she was violating the city’s government ethics ordinance by using city resources to host a prayer service.

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 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.

Cases that involved at least one officer with repeated claims of misconduct accounted for 60% of the cost borne by taxpayers to resolve police misconduct cases between 2019 and 2022, according to the analysis by WTTW News.