{"id":356979,"date":"2025-11-05T08:04:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T08:04:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/356979\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T08:04:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T08:04:19","slug":"chicago-police-department-bga-policy-2026-budget-snapshot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/356979\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Police Department &#8211; BGA Policy 2026 Budget Snapshot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Chicago Police Department is by far the largest city department, in terms of both headcount and budgeted appropriations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>CPD positions make up 38.6% of the city\u2019s total budgeted headcount in the 2026 budget proposal. The next-largest department, the Chicago Fire Department, is roughly one-third the size of CPD, with all other departments considerably smaller.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>CPD appropriations make up 20.5% of all departmental budgets in the 2026 proposal. Looking at non-grant funds only, CPD makes up 31.4% of locally-funded departmental appropriations, and 50.5% of corporate funded departmental appropriations.<\/p>\n<p>Departmental Highlights<\/p>\n<p><strong>Snapshot: Appropriation &amp; Staffing Changes from 2025 Budget<\/strong><\/p>\n<tr>\n<td\/>\n<td>2025 Budgeted<\/td>\n<td>2026 Proposed<\/td>\n<td>Net Change<\/td>\n<td>Percent Change<\/td>\n<td>Average Annual Rate of Change (2011-2025)<\/td>\n<td>Inflation-adjusted Rate of Change (2011-2024)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Appropriations<\/td>\n<td>$2,097,040,517<\/td>\n<td>$2,114,745,912<\/td>\n<td>$17,705,395<\/td>\n<td>0.8%<\/td>\n<td>3.5%<\/td>\n<td>0.5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Positions &amp; FTEs<\/td>\n<td>13806<\/td>\n<td>13792<\/td>\n<td>-14<\/td>\n<td>-0.1%<\/td>\n<td>-0.9%<\/td>\n<td>NA<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Over the past three complete budget years for which local fund actuals\/encumbrances data is available, CPD was the only city department to consistently exceed its budget, by increasing amounts each year. CPD\u2019s 2024 non-grant overspend of $188.1 million was on its own larger than the total non-grant budgets of 32 of the city\u2019s 39 departments.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The bulk of the overspend in 2022 came from legal settlements and judgments, while in 2023 and 2024 overspend was driven by both personnel services and court settlements.<\/li>\n<li>As a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bettergov.org\/2022\/11\/07\/budget-analysis-city-of-chicago-legal-judgment-and-settlement-spending\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2022 BGA Policy analysis<\/a> highlighted, CPD has gone over its budget for legal settlements every year since at least 2011 with the exception of 2020, when courts were closed for much of the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The city council has already authorized CPD-related settlements exceeding the 2025 budget as well, with two months still remaining in the year, but the 2026 proposal does not change the CPD settlements appropriation from the same level it has been at since 2020.<\/li>\n<li>Because the appropriation categories used in the 2022-2024 actuals datasets from the Department of Finance do not correspond exactly to the appropriation accounts used in the budgets presented by the Office of Budget and Management, an exact line-by-line comparison of real spend to budget is not possible. However, a separate CPD overtime dataset and dashboard maintained by the Office of Inspector General showed overtime earnings well in excess of budget for CPD in 2023 ($324.4 million) and 2024 ($270.5 million), meaning that overtime likely made up the majority of the personnel services overspend.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>From Feb-Sept 2025, the months for which the city has published monthly vacancies data, 742 of CPD\u2019s budgeted full-time positions were persistent vacancies (meaning that the same title\/division\/section\/subsection combination was vacant for all eight months of available data).\u00a0\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Persistent vacancies at CPD from Feb-Sept 2025 included all three of the department\u2019s standalone, single-title divisions: the Urban Areas Security Initiative, violence against women\/domestic violence protection, and response to domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking programs.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Apart from the single-position special divisions, the DoJ-funded Community Oriented Policing Services hiring program and Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform had the highest rate of persistent vacancies, 37.3% and 23.6% respectively.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Persistent vacancy rates at Patrol Services, the department\u2019s largest division, were very low, with only 1.6% of budgeted full-time positions unfilled from Feb-Sept 2025.<\/li>\n<li>The titles with the most persistent vacancies were Police Officer, Police Officer Assigned as Detective, Training Officer, and Police Officer \u2013 Field Training Officer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Budgeted positions overall remained very consistent with the previous year, with a net -14 positions primarily driven by changes in the Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>21 Training Officer positions have been eliminated from the Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform, the largest change within a single title in the proposed CPD budget.<\/li>\n<li>The department is also down a net six Sergeant positions and four of the department\u2019s five Coordinator of Research and Evaluation positions.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Eleven new Assistant Director positions have been budgeted within the Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform, as well as six Police Officer Assigned as SWAT positions within the Bureau of Counter-Terrorism (the only Police Officer title to see a change in budgeted positions.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>CPD\u2019s overtime budget for 2026 is nearly double that of the previous year, up $101.1 million in the largest single-category increase. Most of the remainder of the department\u2019s budget growth comes from salaries and wages and medical expenses outside of workman\u2019s compensation, with relatively small increases in other categories.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The department saw a -$5 million (-27.7%) decrease in outside contract spending from the professional and technical services appropriation account, as well as a -$2 million (-55.4%) decrease in police vehicle appropriations.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Historical Context<\/p>\n<p>CPD\u2019s share of the budget and departmental appropriations as a whole dropped during the height of pandemic-era funding, when massive infusions of COVID-19 relief funds were added to the public health department and other departments with temporary pandemic-response programming.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As pandemic relief funds expire, CPD\u2019s share of the budget as a whole and of total departmental appropriations has begun to trend upwards once more.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>From 2011-2025, CPD\u2019s budgeted appropriations grew by an average annual increase of 3.5%, or 0.5% adjusted for inflation, compared to a citywide average rate of 8.3% (inflation-adjusted 4.4%).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"769\" height=\"476\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/CPD-Appropriation-Chicago-City-Budgets-2011-2026-proposed.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-16887\" title=\"Chart\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Over the past three complete budget years for which local fund actuals\/encumbrances data is available, CPD was the only city department to consistently exceed its budget, by increasing amounts each year. CPD\u2019s 2024 non-grant overspend of $188.1 million was on its own larger than the total non-grant budgets of 32 of the city\u2019s 39 departments.<\/p>\n<p>CPD staffing levels have declined slowly over time since the most-recent high of 14,917 budgeted positions in 2019. From 2011-2025, CPD\u2019s budgeted headcount declined at an average annual rate of -0.9%, compared to a citywide average annual change of -0.1%.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"805\" height=\"498\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/CPD-Budgeted-Workforce-2011-2026-proposed.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-16888\" title=\"Chart\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>From February through September of 2025, the months for which the city released full-time position vacancy data, CPD averaged an 8.6% vacancy rate, compared to the citywide average of 11.2%.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>742 of the department\u2019s budgeted full-time positions were persistent vacancies, meaning that the same title\/division\/section\/subsection combination was vacant for all eight months of available data.<\/p>\n<p>Persistent vacancies at CPD from Feb-Sept 2025 included all three of the department\u2019s standalone, single-title divisions: the Urban Areas Security Initiative, violence against women\/domestic violence protection, and response to domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking programs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Apart from the single-position special divisions, the COPS hiring program and Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform had the highest rate of persistent vacancies, 37.3% and 23.6% respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Persistent vacancy rates at Patrol Services, the department\u2019s largest division, were very low, with only 1.6% of budgeted full-time positions unfilled from Feb-Sept 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n<tr>\n<td>Division<\/td>\n<td>Budgeted 2025 Full-time Positions<\/td>\n<td>Persistent Full-time Vacancies, Feb-Sept 2025<\/td>\n<td>Percent Persistent Vacant<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Improving CPD\u2019s Response to Domestic Violence Sexual Assault and Stalking<\/td>\n<td>1<\/td>\n<td>1<\/td>\n<td>100.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Urban Areas Security Initiative<\/td>\n<td>1<\/td>\n<td>1<\/td>\n<td>100.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Violence Against Women \u2013 Domestic Violence Protection<\/td>\n<td>1<\/td>\n<td>1<\/td>\n<td>100.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>COPS Hiring Program<\/td>\n<td>150<\/td>\n<td>56<\/td>\n<td>37.3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform<\/td>\n<td>605<\/td>\n<td>143<\/td>\n<td>23.6%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Chicago Police Department (Administration)<\/td>\n<td>342<\/td>\n<td>80<\/td>\n<td>23.4%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Transit Security<\/td>\n<td>32<\/td>\n<td>7<\/td>\n<td>21.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Bureau of Counter-Terrorism<\/td>\n<td>1227<\/td>\n<td>178<\/td>\n<td>14.5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Bureau of Detectives<\/td>\n<td>542<\/td>\n<td>76<\/td>\n<td>14.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Office of the First Deputy<\/td>\n<td>66<\/td>\n<td>7<\/td>\n<td>10.6%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Bureau of Crime Control Strategies<\/td>\n<td>255<\/td>\n<td>27<\/td>\n<td>10.6%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Patrol Services<\/td>\n<td>10520<\/td>\n<td>165<\/td>\n<td>1.6%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<p>CPD had at least one persistent vacancy from Feb-Sept 2025 in 65 different titles, with the most persistent vacancies in the Police Officer, Police Officer Assigned as Detective, Training Officer, and Police Officer \u2013 Field Training Officer positions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Staffing<\/p>\n<p>21 Training Officer positions have been eliminated from the Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform, the largest change within a single title in the proposed CPD budget. The department is also down a net six Sergeant positions and four of the department\u2019s five Coordinator of Research and Evaluation positions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Eleven new Assistant Director positions have been budgeted within the Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform, as well as six Police Officer Assigned as SWAT positions within the Bureau of Counter-Terrorism (the only specific Police Officer role to see a change in budgeted positions.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Appropriations<\/p>\n<p>CPD is 95.9% locally-funded in this year\u2019s budget proposal, up slightly from the previous year\u2019s 89.9%.<\/p>\n<p>92.5% of the department\u2019s appropriations are funded from the Corporate Fund. Federal grant funded appropriations have declined significantly, down -$115.7 million (-68%) from the previous year\u2019s budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n<tr>\n<td>Fund<\/td>\n<td>2025 Budgeted<\/td>\n<td>2026 Proposed<\/td>\n<td>Net Change from 2025<\/td>\n<td>Percent Change from 2025<\/td>\n<td>Percent of 2026 Recommended Funds<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Corporate Fund<\/td>\n<td>$1,817,872,823<\/td>\n<td>$1,956,602,588<\/td>\n<td>$138,729,765<\/td>\n<td>7.6%<\/td>\n<td>92.5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Federal Grant Fund<\/td>\n<td>$170,187,000<\/td>\n<td>$54,454,000<\/td>\n<td>-$115,733,000<\/td>\n<td>-68.0%<\/td>\n<td>2.6%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Chicago Police CTA Detail Fund<\/td>\n<td>$30,000,000<\/td>\n<td>$30,000,000<\/td>\n<td>$0<\/td>\n<td>0.0%<\/td>\n<td>1.4%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Chicago O\u2019Hare Airport Fund<\/td>\n<td>$27,609,618<\/td>\n<td>$28,334,820<\/td>\n<td>$725,202<\/td>\n<td>2.6%<\/td>\n<td>1.3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Local Public and Private Grant Fund<\/td>\n<td>$16,017,000<\/td>\n<td>$23,336,000<\/td>\n<td>$7,319,000<\/td>\n<td>45.7%<\/td>\n<td>1.1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Chicago Midway Airport Fund<\/td>\n<td>$9,378,076<\/td>\n<td>$9,644,527<\/td>\n<td>$266,451<\/td>\n<td>2.8%<\/td>\n<td>0.5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>State Grant Fund<\/td>\n<td>$19,839,000<\/td>\n<td>$8,718,000<\/td>\n<td>-$11,121,000<\/td>\n<td>-56.1%<\/td>\n<td>0.4%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Community Safety Fund<\/td>\n<td>$0<\/td>\n<td>$3,555,977<\/td>\n<td>$3,555,977<\/td>\n<td>#DIV\/0!<\/td>\n<td>0.2%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Controlled Substances Fund<\/td>\n<td>$100,000<\/td>\n<td>$100,000<\/td>\n<td>$0<\/td>\n<td>0.0%<\/td>\n<td>0.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>COVID-19 Grant Fund<\/td>\n<td>$6,037,000<\/td>\n<td>$0<\/td>\n<td>-$6,037,000<\/td>\n<td>-100.0%<\/td>\n<td>0.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<p>Largest Appropriations<\/p>\n<p>As in previous years, personnel expenses make up the vast majority of CPD\u2019s budget, with salaries and wages the largest single appropriations category by far. Overtime is the next-largest category, having nearly doubled from the previous year\u2019s appropriations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Funds for legal settlements and judgments is the department\u2019s third-largest appropriation, despite having remained unchanged from the previous year. As a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bettergov.org\/2022\/11\/07\/budget-analysis-city-of-chicago-legal-judgment-and-settlement-spending\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2022 BGA Policy analysis<\/a> highlighted, CPD has gone over its budget for legal settlements every year except for 2020, when courts were closed for much of the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The city council has already authorized CPD-related settlements exceeding the 2025 budget as well, with two months still remaining in the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As a predominantly locally-funded department, CPD\u2019s local fund actuals and encumbrances are a relatively reliable point of comparison to its budgeted appropriations. CPD has exceeded its non-grant budget by increasing amounts every year in the past three complete budget years for which actuals are available.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The bulk of the overspend in 2022 came entirely from legal settlements and judgments, while in 2023 and 2024 overspend was driven by both personnel services and court settlements.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Because the appropriation categories used in the 2022-2024 actuals datasets from the Department of Finance do not correspond exactly to the appropriation accounts used in the budgets presented by the Office of Budget and Management, an exact line-by-line comparison of real spend to budget is not possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, a separate CPD overtime dataset and dashboard maintained by the Office of Inspector General showed overtime earnings well in excess of budget for CPD in 2023 ($324.4 million) and 2024 ($270.5 million), meaning that overtime likely made up the majority of the personnel services overspend.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024 specifically, the most recent year for which full-year actuals data is available, CPD spent only 55.4% of its budgeted Consent Decree appropriation.<\/p>\n<p>Change from Previous Year<\/p>\n<p>CPD\u2019s overtime budget for 2026 is nearly double that of the previous year, up $101.1 million in the largest single-category increase.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Most of the remainder of the department\u2019s budget growth comes from salaries and wages and medical expenses outside of workman\u2019s compensation, with relatively small increases in other categories.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The department saw a -$5 million (-27.7%) decrease in outside contract spending from the professional and technical services appropriation account, as well as a -$2 million (-55.4%) decrease in police vehicle appropriations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bettergov.org\/2025\/11\/04\/chicago-police-department-bga-policy-2026-budget-snapshot\/?print=pdf\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/pdf.png\" alt=\"image_pdf\" title=\"View PDF\"\/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bettergov.org\/2025\/11\/04\/chicago-police-department-bga-policy-2026-budget-snapshot\/?print=print\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Police Department is by far the largest city department, in terms of both headcount and budgeted&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":356980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[154854,960,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-356979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-budget-hearing-2026","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115496057529323488","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}