Aldermen press police leaders on officer cuts in proposed $2.24 billion CPD budget

The Chicago Police Department’s proposed budget for 2027 is $2.24 billion, up from $2.12 billion this year, and aldermen spent Wednesday’s City Council budget hearing questioning whether it pays for enough officers.¹ Interim Police Superintendent Fred Waller testified for most of the day.^{1, 2}

The 132 positions

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed budget eliminates 132 budgeted sworn-officer positions and replaces them with civilian jobs, FOX 32 reported.¹ Alderperson Brendan Reilly (42nd) asked Waller whether the department had requested the cuts.^{1, 2}

“Well, in negotiation for this year, the mayor’s office asked for those 132 positions,” Waller replied.² In exchange, he said, the department will run academy classes of “50 or more” for all 12 months of 2027 instead of for about eight months of the year.² “That will allow us to catch up and have more robust recruitment,” Waller said.²

Reilly said the number of budgeted officer positions has been falling for several years.² “In 2024, 833 police officer positions were eliminated,” he said.² “In 2025, a net 54 officer positions were cut.”²

The mayor’s $17.6 billion budget also freezes 368 police vacancies, according to the Sun-Times.²

Hiring and retirements

Police officials said 363 officers have retired so far this year, and they expect that number to reach 382 by the end of 2026.¹ As of Wednesday, 222 officers had filed paperwork to retire next year.¹ The department has hired 407 officers this year, the Sun-Times reported.²

The city’s workforce allocation study found the department needs 661 more sworn officers than it has now, FOX 32 reported.¹ Even after civilians take over some jobs, the study found the department would still need 57 more sworn officers than it had at the time of the study, according to figures discussed at the hearing.¹

“Recruitment is always a challenge right now for how many officers we actually need,” Waller said.²

Waller told aldermen that overtime use is down this year.¹ The city’s public overtime dashboard shows nearly $227 million in police overtime spending this year, compared with $286 million last year.¹

Response times and burglaries

Finance Committee Chair Pat Dowell (3rd) asked how the hiring freeze would affect differences in response times between police districts.² “We share the same concerns looking at the trends,” First Deputy Superintendent Antoinette Ursitti said, adding that officials are reviewing each district and each watch for bottlenecks.²

Alderperson Timmy Knudsen (43rd) raised this week’s burglaries of 13 businesses along North Clark Street in Lincoln Park.^{1, 2} He questioned whether the 18th and 19th police districts have enough officers.¹ Police officials said a change in the department’s structure had not reduced staffing in those districts.¹

Chief of Detectives Kevin Bruno said retail burglaries are hard to investigate because they usually happen overnight and involve masked offenders in stolen vehicles.^{1, 2} He said detectives are using video, license plate readers and cellphone data to identify the crews.^{1, 2}

Police officials did not name a vendor for a replacement for ShotSpotter and said little about the city’s new gunshot detection pilot, referring questions to the city’s chief procurement officer, the Sun-Times reported.²

The police budget now moves through the rest of the City Council’s budget process.¹