Salaries and bonuses for Chicago police officers represented by the Fraternal Order of Police in 2024 could exceed the budgeted position costs approved by City Council by $76.8 million or more, according to a BGA Policy analysis of costs arising from the proposed new contract, including $27.5 in one-time bonuses paid to every officer in 2024.

The proposed contract also includes changes to disciplinary policies regarding use of body-worn cameras, the regulation of foot pursuits and other aspects of policing that have come under scrutiny in recent years. New language would expand protections for officers facing discipline and introduce changes to how the department can assign personnel for mass transit duty and homicide investigations. 

The salary, operational and disciplinary changes to the FOP contract were passed last week by the council’s workforce development committee without debate by a voice vote with only Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th Ward) dissenting. The committee in a 10-5 vote after vigorous debate recommended to not pass a separate contract provision that would allow police officers facing dismissal or suspensions of one year or longer to opt for private arbitration rather than a public hearing before the Police Board.

The proposed contract was introduced directly to the committee and was not available for the public to view in the city’s legislative tracking system at the time of the debate and vote. A BGA Policy evaluation of the language considered by the committee, obtained by the Freedom of Information Act, found numerous provisions not publicly announced by the administration.

The BGA analysis found costs totaling at least $76.8 million above the budgeted position costs for 2024 passed by City Council in November, including:

• $27.7 million from the change from a 2.5% raise to a 5% raise
  
• $10.6 million from salary step changes
  
• Potentially $11 million or more from stipends paid to officers with medical, crisis intervention, or bicycle officer training certifications, depending on the number of officers who opt for training and fulfill the stipend eligibility requirements.
  
• $27.5 million for one-time retention bonuses paid to every FOP-represented officer

Costs from raises and salary step changes would continue to accrue in future years, both as immediate salary payments and contributions toward long-term pension obligations. 

In addition to its financial impacts, the contract adds significant new protections for officers facing discipline for misconduct, including time limits on how long internal investigations can take before invalidating any potential discipline, expedited and off-the-record arbitration for suspensions of thirty days or less, and new restrictions on when and where body worn cameras can be active and whether body worn camera footage can be used in disciplinary proceedings.

Financial Changes

Salary Increases

As announced previously by the administration and analyzed by the BGA, the contract includes 5% pay raises for FOP-represented officers in 2024 and 2025, up from the 2.5% and 2% raises in those years previously contained in the union’s bargaining agreement with the Lightfoot administration. 

This would be the largest package of raises for any of the city’s employee unions in modern history. The closest comparable contract came through a 1999 Daley administration package that averaged out to 4% raises annually over four years. The new Johnson administration agreement would average out to between roughly 4.57% and 5.71% annually, depending on inflation.

The raises on their own would cost the city between $188 million and $207 million over the three-and-a-half years of the contract extension, beginning with a $27.7 million increase from the amount budgeted for salaries for FOP-represented positions in the city’s 2024 budget. 

Salary Grade Changes

In addition to the across-the-board raises, the contract contains new language increasing the salary grade of multiple CPD titles. 

Evidence technicians, field training officers and major accident traffic specialists would receive upgrades from the D1 salary schedule to D2A, as would special weapons and tactics  officers, commonly called SWAT officers, which are not treated as a separate title from rank-and-file police officers in the city’s positions budget but which are categorized under their own sub-section.

Additionally, officers assigned as detectives would be upgraded from the D2A salary schedule to a new D2B, defined in the contract as “midway between the D-2A and D-3 rates. All told, the upgrades would affect 1,981 positions as of the 2024 budgeted headcount:

Police Officer – Assigned as Evidence Technician	163
Police Officer – Assigned as Training Officer	450
Police Officer – Assigned as Traffic Specialist	24
Police Officer – Assigned as Detective	1292
Police Officer – SWAT Sub-section	52
TOTAL	1981

At the new salary schedules the cost of the affected positions would increase by roughly $10.6 million in 2024, with costs increasing over time in future budget years. The increases would add to city pension costs as well. 

Certification Stipends

The contract includes new stipends of $1,000 annually for officers with emergency medical, crisis intervention or bike officer training certificates. 

The police department currently has approximately 2,900 officers trained to be bicycle officers, approximately 11,300 with LEMART emergency medical training and approximately 3,990 trained in crisis intervention, according to CPD spokespersons. While not all of those are necessarily FOP-represented officers (police sergeants, lieutenants, and captains have their own bargaining unit), the vast majority of the city’s rank-and-file officers will likely hold at least one stipend-eligible certification.

The stipends are conditional upon ability to exercise the training: officers trained in crisis intervention must be in the department’s CIT program, officers trained for bike duty must be available for events requiring such training,  and LEMART-trained officers must carry a first aid kit. 

The city could potentially face at least another $11 million or more annually in stipend costs if all FOP-represented officers obtain at least one training certificate and make themselves available for the relevant duty. 

Retention Bonus

Referred to in the summary sheet presented to city council as a “signing bonus,” the contract language includes a one-time, non-pensionable bonus of $2,500 for all FOP-represented officers. At the 2024 budgeted headcount of 11,013 FOP-represented officers, this would cost the city $27.5 million, the BGA analysis estimates.  

The benefit broadly expands a pension, previously awarded in arbitration, of $2,000 annually for officers with more than 20 years of service. If left in place, the retention bonuses mandated by the arbitrator could have cost the city as much as $5.2 million in 2024.

As previously reported by BGA Policy, the change will break even for the city in 2027 or 2028, depending on retirements of officers who would have been eligible for the annual retention bonus and assuming no future contracts include additional one-time or annual bonuses. 

Compensatory Time

The new contract allows field training officers to receive cash pay for up to 100 hours of compensatory time per year, payable at their current rate of pay at the time of the cash-out. 

A separate amendment allows officers who have been fired to cash out all their unused compensatory time in the same manner as officers who resigned, retired or died. Previously, fired officers had only been entitled to comp time accumulated as a result of earned overtime for hours worked in excess of 171 per 28 day period.

Disciplinary Changes

Investigation Time Limits

One of the most significant disciplinary changes in the new contract is a stipulation that if an investigation takes more than 18 months to conclude, measured from the date on which the investigation was opened, the union can request arbitration to determine whether there is a reasonable basis for the investigation to take more than 18 months.

In such cases, the Police Department would bear the burden of demonstrating reasonable cause for delay. If the arbitrator deems reasonable cause does not exist, the hearing on the merits of the discipline cannot proceed. 

Body Worn Cameras Policy

The contract also includes new language restricting the use of body-worn cameras and giving police and the FOP additional control over use of camera footage in disciplinary cases. 

According to the new language, body-worn cameras cannot be used to record conversations among police during “routine, non-law enforcement activities” or in places with a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as locker rooms and restrooms. The policy also prohibits the use of body-worn cameras to record “post-incident conversations with any Department members or supervisors” and allows officers required to wear cameras to turn them off during times in which the officer is not actively engaging the public. 

Any recordings falling afoul of the new restrictions would not be eligible for use in disciplinary proceedings, providing a significant shield to officers who currently are prohibited from disabling cameras while on duty. 

“Peoples’ Court”

In addition to the changes in arbitration of serious disciplinary cases, the contract contains a new option for officers facing suspensions of thirty days or less to go before an arbitrator for an abbreviated hearing, which the contract language terms “People’s Court.”

Parties in the abbreviated hearings would not be allowed to submit written arguments in support of their positions, and arbitrators would issue final and binding decisions on the same day as hearings, with no further review or reprimand allowed. The proceedings would not be recorded by a court reporter.

Foot Pursuit

The new contract also contains language specifically protecting officers from disciplinary action for engaging, not engaging in or terminating a foot pursuit, so long the officer’s actions comply with the department’s foot pursuit policy.

Operational Changes

In addition to the financial and disciplinary changes, the contract language also includes several operational provisions:

• A change in mass transit detail assignments: previously, 80% of transit assignments had been available to members requesting them in order of seniority, with the remaining 20% filled at the department’s discretion. While the new contract continues to treat mass transit duty as a biddable perquisite, the split has been reduced to 50/50, with the department making half the assignments and the remainder available based on seniority.
  
• Detectives may now apply for a pilot homicide-team program that would place them on 10-hour, fourth-watch shifts focused entirely on homicide caseloads.
  
• Language has been added clarifying that no officer who has not completed field training shall be considered to have completed their probationary period.
  
• New language adds requirements that the department:
  • provide officers who have been injured with emergency medical assistance training and “the necessary medical supplies to enable them to tend to injured officers or citizens;” this would qualify said officers for the training stipend
  • provide all necessary training and personal protective equipment needed in the event of a pandemic or mass public health emergency
  • provide officers with “appropriate training” on use-of-force rules that are consistent with department policy.

Attachment: Proposed Step Changes for FOP Salaries