“I continue to believe that people cannot both work for the government and defraud the government,” Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said.

“Any student of CPD’s modern history can recognize that there have been these groups of officers that have contributed more than their fair share of harm and misconduct,” Inspector General Deborah Witzburg told WTTW News Wednesday.

So far, Chicago taxpayers have paid approximately $11.9 million to settle and defend lawsuits sparked by the conduct of CPD officers during protests that swept the city in 2020 and erupted into unrest, according to court records.

The City Council’s Finance Committee on Wednesday is set to consider the proposed settlement, which calls for taxpayers to pay $20 million and the city’s insurance company to pay $2 million. A final vote of the City Council could come Jan. 21.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability determined police were not justified in stopping the man’s car and should not have searched him or his car after handcuffing him in Chicago’s River North neighborhood on March 18, 2024.

Chicago police officers have faced pointed questions from residents and elected officials for more than six months about their actions during a series of increasingly aggressive immigration enforcement actions ordered by President Donald Trump.

The city budget, which will take effect Jan. 1, will double CPD’s overtime budget from $100 million to $200 million, the first increase since 2020, when the budget for police overtime went from $95 million to $100 million, records show.

A federal jury determined Chicago police officers did not violate the civil rights of the Chicago man they shot during a February 2020 incident in the Grand Red Line CTA station, records show.

CPD’s inaccurate and incomplete disciplinary histories makes it impossible to trust that police officers are being held responsible for misconduct, Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said.

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability determined that three tactical team officers assigned to patrol the Near North (18th) Police District improperly searched Limorris Bell and his car on Sept. 1, 2024.

In the latest case to be settled, the Chicago City Council agreed Wednesday to pay $15.4 million to Robert Smith Jr., who spent 33 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of the 1987 double murder of his wife’s mother and grandmother.

CPD officers have shot 22 people, killing nine, since the start of the year, records show. In 2024, CPD officers shot 12 people, killing six, records show.

“We have to revisit our promotion policy,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “We don’t want these types of archaic approaches to set us back. So, it is something that we are looking into.”

CPD officers have now shot 21 people, killing eight, since the start of the year, records show. In 2024, CPD officers shot 12 people, killing six, records show.

Since the shooting, Chicago taxpayers have paid $591,500 to resolve four lawsuits that allege the officer, who was promoted in June 2025, violated the rights of other Chicagoans, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.

If approved, it would bring the total amount spent by taxpayers in 2025 to compensate those wrongfully convicted based on evidence developed by Chicago police officers to $204.6 million, according to a WTTW News analysis.