Faith leaders and elected officials called for the creation of a new gun violence prevention department, claiming the existing Office of Violence Prevention is a “ghost office” that doesn’t do enough to keep Chicagoans safe.

From the beginning of his appointment in April, Chicago Deputy Mayor for Community Safety Emmanuel Andre has faced a number of challenges — from how to handle teen takeovers and rising domestic violence cases to aggressive federal immigration enforcement and rising political tensions.

The city’s 2026 budget set aside just $82.5 million for police misconduct settlements, and authorized officials to borrow an additional $283.3 million to cover the soaring cost of lawsuits alleging wrongdoing by police officers, records show.

Marcel Brown's lawsuit was resolved with the largest payment Chicago taxpayers have ever made to compensate someone wrongfully convicted based on evidence developed by Chicago police, according to a WTTW News analysis.

It is not clear how — or why — Benchmark Analytics was selected by officials in the Johnson administration in the fall of 2024 to create the system required by the federal court order known as the consent decree.

David Jones’ federal lawsuit accuses four Chicago police officers, including convicted former Officer David Salgado, of conspiring to frame him in March 2015 for selling drugs in Lawndale.

Since January 2025, Chicago taxpayers spent at least $103.1 million to resolve 14 lawsuits brought by people who were injured or on behalf of those killed during police pursuits, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.

The prevalence of mass youth gatherings, known as teen takeovers, often increases with the temperature as the trend becomes more popular in summer months. So far this year, at least four major events have taken place in Chicago.

Chicago’s U.S. attorney under fire from more than 100 former prosecutors. And efforts to prevent large teen gatherings from turning violent.

According to the Chicago Police Department, there were 36 homicides throughout last month, two fewer than were recorded during May 2025, a year that ended with a historically low homicide total.

Instead, Officer Michael Bryant should be suspended for 25 days, Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling determined, objecting to the recommendation from the Civilian Office of Police Accountability that Bryant be fired.

The federal lawsuit was filed on what would have been Adam Toledo’s 19th birthday, attorneys for his parents said.

The lawsuit is the second to be resolved that alleged police officers beat Black Chicagoans attempting to flee the Northwest Side’s Brickyard Mall as looters began to ransack the mall after the police murder of George Floyd in 2020.

There is no evidence that Mayor Brandon Johnson’s decision to turn off the microphones that sent an alert to police officers every time the system picked up suspected gunfire slowed police response times and drove up violent crime, as many warned, according to a new analysis.

Host Brandis Friedman and audience members put questions to a Chicago Police Department official, leaders of local anti-violence nonprofits and community-police organizations to try and assess the current state of community and police relationships. 

Chicago taxpayers paid $27,500 to a Chicago native who was stopped by the same tactical team of officers who would days later pull over Dexter Reed and fatally shoot him in a barrage of gunfire after he fired at officers, records show.