The Chicago Police Department is the city’s largest department both in headcount and in overall funds appropriated, with nearly three times the positions budgeted as the next-largest Chicago Fire Department. CPD makes up slightly less than 40% of the city’s entire workforce, and slightly under 20% of all departmental appropriations.
Snapshot: Appropriation & Staffing Changes from 2023 Budget
| 2023 Budgeted | 2024 Proposed | Net Change | Percent Change | |
| Appropriations | $1,943,242,055 | $1,998,869,599 | $55,627,544 | 2.9% |
| Positions & FTEs | 14137 | 14136 | -1 | -0.007% |
Departmental Highlights
- Overall headcount remains effectively unchanged (down one position), with title changes reflecting a reprioritization of budgeted positions: standard police officer positions are down -833 positions, while police officers assigned to specialist roles are up, with the largest increase in police officers assigned as training officers (up 170 positions) and police officers assigned as detectives (up 100 positions).
- Promotions account for another significant share of the staffing changes, with an additional 100 training officer, 100 sergeant, 20 lieutenant, five captain, three commander, six assistant director, and two deputy director roles above their 2023 levels.
- The largest non-personnel appropriations are $136.4 million in outside contracting via the professional and technical services category and $82.6 million for legal judgments. The latter is the same amount the department has budgeted for judgments every year since Mayor Lightfoot’s first budget. A BGA Policy Analysis in 2023 found that police settlements make up an average of 72% of all citywide legal judgements and fees annually, and that the department has been over-budget on settlements every year since 2011 except for 2020.
- Salaries and wages are of course the largest appropriation for the personnel-heavy police department, and other personnel-related appropriations make up the bulk of the department’s largest appropriations. Overtime, salary provision, duty availability, compensatory time, medical care, uniform allowance, and furlough/comp time buyback are all multimillion dollar appropriations, as are a number of other categories not in the top 10 largest.
- The largest single-category increase in the police department’s proposed 2024 budget is a $60.3 million jump in outside contracting via the professional and technical services category, a 79.2% change from the previous year. Technical meeting costs and rental equipment and services also both increased by roughly $2 million each.
- As with the largest appropriations, the bulk of cost growth in the police department comes from wages and salaries and other personnel related categories, with compensatory time, fringe benefits, and reimbursement to travelers among the largest appropriation increases.
- CPD consent decree spending is down $1.7 million from the previous year’s budget. All told, the 2024 budget includes roughly $18.1 million in consent decree spending, divided between CPD, COPA, OEMC, and OPSA, down approximately $1 million from the previous year.
Historical Context
CPD did not receive American Rescue Plan funding following the outbreak of COVID-19. Like other non-ARP departments, CPD’s share of the overall budget and of overall departmental budgets dropped due to the injection of $1.88 billion (in 2022) and $717.7 million (in 2023) into departments with ARP-funded programming or revenue replacement.
From 2011-2023, the department budget grew at an average rate of 2.9% per year. Departmental budgets overall increased an average of 5.9% per year over the same time period, while the total city budget including Finance General appropriations grew at an average rate of 8.2% annually.
CPD’s total budgeted workforce has declined at a rate of roughly 0.8% per year from 2011-2023. It remains the largest department by far, having declined from approximately 43% of the total city workforce to approximately 39%.
The 2024 proposed budget increases CPD’s budget by 2.9%, consistent with the department’s historical average and but larger than the 1.3% citywide increase in appropriations overall.
Police Contract Impacts
The most recent Fraternal Order of Police collective bargaining agreement was concluded early in Rahm Emanuel’s mayoracy, and initially covered 2012-2017. Following several years without a new contract, the existing contract was extended with modifications (O2021-3449) in September 2021, under Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Council voted 40-8 to approve.
2021 Extension Budgetary Impacts
The 2021 contract extension raised salaries retroactively back to 2017, stepping up from a 1% raise in 2017 to 2.25% in 2018 and 2019, and locking in increases from 2020 onward of 2.5% annually.
The 2022 budget, which was finalized and passed following the contract extension agreement, saw a significant increase to pay for the retroactive raises. The overall cost of Bargaining Unit 91 (FOP) positions in the 2022 budget leapt nearly $125 million from the 2021 to the 2022 budget, a roughly 13% increase, and both the overall cost and the cost-per-unit of FOP positions have continued to rise in subsequent years.
Bargaining Unit 91 Positions & Cost of Positions, 2021-2024 (proposed) Chicago Budgets
| Budget Year: | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
| Positions | 11,557 | 11,555 | 11,554 | 11,013 |
| Budgeted Position Cost | $994,039,836 | $1,118,846,406 | $1,106,682,438 | $1,107,307,062 |
| Cost per Budgeted Position | $86,012 | $96,828 | $95,783 | $100,545 |
The 2021 contract extension also raised the duty availability and uniform allowance stipends. Appropriation accounts in the city budget are not broken out by bargaining unit the way that positions are, so those totals reflect CPD overall and not just FOP members, but the appropriation accounts still showed a similar 15% increase in the 2022 budget that included the retroactive increases. The appropriation accounts for duty availability and uniform allowance remained the same in the 2023 budget, and are slightly reduced in the 2024 budget, which also contains a reduction of 41 FOP positions.
CPD Duty Availability and Uniform Allowance Appropriations, 2021-2024 (proposed) Chicago Budgets
| Budget Year | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
| CPD Duty Availability Appropriation | $39,525,800 | $46,500,000 | $46,500,000 | $40,000,000 |
| COD Uniform Allowance Appropriation | $22,273,775 | $24,283,000 | $24,283,000 | $21,983,000 |
| Total | $61,799,575 | $70,783,000 | $70,783,000 | $61,983,000 |
The 2021 extension also raised the maximum salary for the highest-paid class of members from $114,846 (or $118,296 for officers maxed out prior to 2006) to $130,000, effective January 1, 2022.
2023 Proposed Extension
A further extension of the FOP contract has been announced by both the FOP and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration, but not yet introduced into City Council.
With the understanding that the details of the agreement could still change, the most significant budgetary impacts currently made public would be a doubling of the 2024 and 2025 pay raises, up from 2.5% to 5%, with cost-of-living increases tied to inflation (minimum 3% and maximum 5%) in 2026 and 2027, and the addition of a $2500 one-time bonus in 2024, replacing the $2000/year retention bonus for officers with over 20 years of service.
The retention bonus is not broken out as a separate appropriation in city budgets, but the one-time bonus is easily calculated by multiplying the number of FOP positions budgeted by $2500, for a total cost of roughly $27.5 million above the 2024 budget’s current appropriations.
Scheduled salary increases are not broken out by bargaining unit in the city budget, but with FOP positions making up roughly 78% of CPD’s total budgeted positions, and an overall scheduled salary increase appropriation of $10.9 million, the doubled salary increase can be very roughly estimated at $16.9 million for its first year, increasing proportionally thereafter.
Staffing
The proposed 2024 budget keeps the overall CPD headcount nearly unchanged, with a net reduction of one position.
Police department general staff and the hiring program saw the largest headcount increases, while patrol services and the bureau of counter-terrorism saw the largest decreases:
Title changes reflect a reprioritization of budgeted positions: standard police officer positions are down -833 positions, while police officers assigned to specialist roles are up, with the largest increase in police officers assigned as training officers (up 170 positions) and police officers assigned as detectives (up 100 positions).
Promotions account for another significant share of the staffing changes, with an additional 100 training officer, 100 sergeant, 20 lieutenant, five captain, three commander, six assistant director, and two deputy director roles above their 2023 levels.
The 2024 budget also adds a new investigatorial staff, with 31 investigator and 3 supervising investigator positions.
Appropriations
Largest Appropriations
Salaries and wages are of course the largest appropriation for the personnel-heavy police department, and other personnel-related appropriations make up the bulk of the department’s largest appropriations. Overtime, salary provision, duty availability, compensatory time, medical care, uniform allowance, and furlough/comp time buyback are all multimillion dollar appropriations, as are a number of other categories not in the top 10 largest.
The largest non-personnel appropriations are $136.4 million in outside contracting via the professional and technical services category and $82.6 million for legal judgments. This is the same amount the department has budgeted for judgments every year since Mayor Lightfoot’s first budget. 2020 has been the only year in over a decade that the department came in under-budget on legal judgements and settlements.
Change from Previous Year
The largest single-category increase in the police department’s proposed 2024 budget is a $60.3 million jump in outside contracting via the professional and technical services category, a 79.2% change from the previous year. Technical meeting costs and rental equipment and services also both increased by roughly $2 million each.
As with the largest appropriations, the bulk of cost growth in the police department comes from wages and salaries and other personnel related categories, with compensatory time, fringe benefits, and reimbursement to travelers among the largest appropriation increases.
Departmental savings were found in a -$29.2 million reduction in matching and supplemental grant funds, as well as multimillion dollar reductions in the reimbursable overtime, duty availability, salary provision, uniform allowance, and police and fire vehicles appropriations.
CPD consent decree spending is down $1.7 million from the previous year’s budget. All told, the 2024 budget includes roughly $18.1 million in consent decree spending, divided between CPD, COPA, OEMC, and OPSA, down approximately $1 million from the previous year.
