Chicago Police Department
The Chicago Police Department is by far the largest of Chicago’s departments in terms of both appropriations and personnel. In the 2023 proposal, CPD’s $1.9 billion budget accounts for roughly 19.1% of all departmental appropriations, and CPD positions make up 40.6% of all budgeted city staff.
Change Highlights and Context
- Despite only 3.4% budget growth, the size of CPD’s budget means that it still received the third-largest increase in appropriations dollars of any city department, following CDOT (which saw 124.8% growth from the previous year’s budget) and the Department of Aviation (12.4% growth, self-funded by airport revenues).
- Most CPD divisions remained at a consistent headcount or saw slight increases. However, the Bureau of Detectives is down 32 full-time positions, including the elimination of 19 Police Officer Assigned as Detective, six Sergeant and one Lieutenant positions:
- CPD’s largest non-personnel budget increases in the 2023 budget are in external spending, with a $28.6 million (265.1%) increase in the Matching and Supplemental Grants appropriation and a $16.7 million (28.1%) increase in the Professional and Technical Services (outside contracting) budget. Because grant and contract appropriations are lump-sum, the budget does not make clear what services those increased totals will fund.
- CPD’s budget adds multiple new positions related to performance analysis in 2023, with a net increase of 21 positions total across the Chief, Senior, and regular Performance Analyst titles.
- As with previous budgets, the 2023 budget maintains the high levels of CPD public relations and communications staffings added during Mayor Emanuel’s second term. A Better Government Administration analysis found that, following the murder of Laquan McDonald and the city’s unsuccessful effort to withhold the incident footage, PR/comms positions budgeted for CPD rose from six full-time positions to 52 over the course of four years. The Lightfoot administration has largely continued that Emanuel-era trend, with 50 positions in the current budget proposal, up from 48 in the 2022 budget.
Board of Ethics
Change Highlights and Context
- BoE’s budget remained largely unchanged, with a slight overall reduction largely driven by a 30% reduction in the Professional and Technical Services (outside contracting) appropriation account.
