The Chicago Police Department spent $520.5 million more than its City Council-approved budget between 2023-2025 — and is on track to exceed its budget for a sixth straight year, records show.
Mayor Brandon Johnson, who took office mid 2023, proposed a spending plan for 2027 that would increase CPD’s budget by approximately 6% to reach $2.24 billion, records show.
With two full months left in 2026, CPD is nearly certain to exceed its $2.1 billion annual budget, having already paid $226.8 million to officers for working extra hours through September, according to a database published by the Officer of the Inspector General. CPD’s annual budget for overtime is $200 million, records show.
In addition, Chicago taxpayers have spent more than $277 million since the start of 2026 to resolve lawsuits alleging a wide range of police misconduct, according to a WTTW News analysis of city records. CPD’s 2026 budget set aside just $82.5 million to cover the cost of resolving police misconduct lawsuits, records show.
CPD’s proposed 2027 budget once again sets aside $200 million for overtime, but increases the amount set aside to resolve lawsuits alleging misconduct to $90 million.
Johnson has urged the City Council to borrow an additional $481 million to cover the cost of resolving lawsuits naming members of the police department.
Plans call for the city to borrow $350 million in 2027 and another $131 million in 2028, Chief Financial Officer Ashlee Gabrysch said Monday.
At current rates, the city expects to pay $190 million in interest to borrow $350 million in 2027 and pay it off during the next seven years, Gabrysch said.
Interim Supt. Fred Waller is set to appear Wednesday before the City Council’s Budget and Government Operations Committee to defend the department’s 2027 proposed budget, which is set to increase by $122.5 million as compared with 2026 to cover the cost of salary increases required by agreements with unions representing members.
Waller is expected to serve as CPD’s interim superintendent through the end of the year, as the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability searches for a permanent leader. The oversight board has until Nov. 12 to recommend three finalists to Johnson, who then gets 30 days to choose one or reject all three, which would force the commission to start over. Johnson’s pick must be confirmed by the City Council.
There are more than 1,500 vacant positions in CPD, records show. The number of sworn officers has dropped less than one percentage point in the past year and 2.5% since May 2023, when Johnson took office, according to the records.
CPD’s budget calls for 132 vacant sworn positions to be converted to civilian positions, a spokesperson for the mayor told WTTW News and members of the City Council.
That will put “more than 100 officers back on the streets while saving millions of dollars,” according to a statement from the mayor’s office.
An additional 368 sworn officer positions remain frozen for a second year, to save $20.6 million, officials said.
The mayor’s spokesperson did not respond to questions from WTTW News about why CPD has overspent its budget by more than a half billion dollars during Johnson’s administration.
Police brass plan to hire approximately 600 new officers in 2027, acting Budget Director Jonathan Ernst told members of the Budget Committee on Monday.
While approximately 20% of CPD’s members do not have police powers, 35% of the New York Police Department and 30% of the Los Angeles Police Department are civilians, records show.
More than six months ago, CPD released the results of a long-awaited study required by the federal court order known as the consent decree that recommended that 600 sworn-officer positions be filled by civilians.
The study also urges city leaders to change the way officers are assigned to patrol the areas of the city with the most crime when violent incidents are most likely to occur.
The study is designed to give police leaders and city officials a roadmap to change the way CPD trains, supervises and disciplines officers, as required by the consent decree, which has been in effect for more than seven and a half years.
CPD had fully complied with 32% of the consent decree’s requirements, according to the most recent report from the court-appointed monitoring team charged with keeping track of efforts to comply with the federal court order prompted by a 2017 probe that found officers routinely violated the constitutional rights of Black and Latino Chicagoans.
WTTW News coverage of policing and police reform is supported by The Joyce Foundation.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | hcherone@wttw.com
