Mayor Brandon Johnson takes questions at a March 13, 2024, news conference at the Garfield Park fieldhouse. (WTTW News)

“This has been a situation that has gotten increasingly out of control,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said about the massive bills for police overtime. “The superintendent and I, we both agree on that.”

(Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)

The Chicago Police Department spent $293 million on overtime last year, 40% more than in 2022 and nearly three times the $100 million earmarked for police overtime set by the Chicago City Council as part of the city’s 2023 budget, according to data obtained by WTTW News.

Mayor Brandon Johnson addresses the news media on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. (Heather Cherone/WTTW)
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“I’m going to spend all that money, I can assure you of that,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

(Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
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Chicago spent less than $160 million on a host of programs including affordable housing, mental health, violence prevention, youth job programs and help for unhoused Chicagoans through Dec. 31, 2023, according to reports to the federal government.

Mayor Brandon Johnson presides over the Nov. 15. 2023, Chicago City Council meeting as his budget is approved. (WTTW News)

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s first budget, which took effect Monday, includes no new taxes, fees or service cuts. Johnson now must make good on his promise to use the city’s $16.7 billion spending plan as a down payment on investments in working-class Chicagoans.

Mayor Brandon Johnson presides over the Nov. 15. 2023, Chicago City Council meeting as his budget is approved. (WTTW News)

The budget, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2024, includes no new taxes, fees or service cuts, making it much easier for alderpeople to back the plan touted by Mayor Brandon Johnson as a down payment on promises to invest in working-class Chicagoans.

(WTTW News)

The newly created Department of Reentry would have a budget of $5 million and four employees charged with helping formerly incarcerated individuals in Chicago get what “they need to thrive in this city,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said.

Chicago City Hall. (Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s first spending plan eliminates a $538 million shortfall and prioritizes new investments in affordable housing, mental health services and environmental justice.

(Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
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Even though the Chicago Police Department has exceeded its overtime budget in each of the past five years, the City Council is once again poised to set aside just $100 million to cover the department’s overtime bill in the 2024 budget.

Chicago City Hall. (Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)

The working group formed by Mayor Brandon Johnson in June to tackle Chicago’s acutely underfunded pensions has yet to craft a comprehensive plan to address one of the major fiscal challenges facing the city.

A mock-up of the city's municipal identification card. (City of Chicago)

More than 1,000 people – mostly migrants – lined up hours before the city clerk’s event on Oct. 12 at Gill Park in Wrigleyville was scheduled to start, overwhelming the 15-person staff, City Clerk Anna Valencia told WTTW News.

Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling appears on “Chicago Tonight: Black Voices” on Oct. 18, 2023. (WTTW News)

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2024 spending plan would increase the overall CPD budget to nearly $2 billion, accounting for more than 31% of the city’s $5.7 billion corporate fund, by far the most of any city agency or department.

A mock-up of the city's municipal identification card. (City of Chicago)

City officials have issued 150% more municipal ID cards so far in 2023 than in all of 2021 and 17% more than in all of 2022, according to city data.

(Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)

The analysis by Fitch said the rating upgrade “is driven by a decline in the city’s long-term liability burden stemming from steady growth in the economic resource base and improved debt management practices.”

Andrea Kersten, chief administrator of Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability, appears on “Chicago Tonight” on June 28, 2023. (WTTW News)
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COPA Chief Administrator Andrea Kersten announced in June that she would seek to clear the agency’s backlog of cases more than 18 months old, which she said were compromising the ability of the agency to investigate more recent complaints alleging significant misconduct by officers.

Chicago City Hall. (Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)

Several alderpeople, from across the political spectrum, asked Budget Director Annette Guzman why the mayor set aside just $150 million in his spending plan to care for the migrants, even though that is less than half of what the city will have spent to care for Chicago’s newest arrivals through the end of 2023.