Mayor Brandon Johnson on Thursday pushed back on criticism that his Chicago police budget plan endangers the department’s compliance with the federal consent decree, despite dire warnings from Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the court-ordered independent monitor.
Raoul on Tuesday wrote to “strongly urge” Johnson against slashing unfilled CPD positions in the 2025 budget that are tasked with implementing the consent decree, arguing that the city risks “being held in contempt of court for failing to comply,” according to a copy of letter that was obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request. He wrote that his office, which is the plaintiff in the lawsuit that sparked the consent decree, plans to take court action if Johnson does not reverse course.
Asked to respond Thursday, the mayor defended his record on the consent decree but did not otherwise indicate what’s next for the hundreds of proposed cuts across the offices of constitutional policing, community policing and more, beyond calling “for us all to look at it and reflect on it.”
“What we said we were not going to do is lay off police officers and firefighters,” Johnson said at an unrelated news conference on the West Side. “We’ve made a commitment — I did — to hire more detectives, to create better supervision. These are all elements within the consent decree that we have to adhere to. That’s what my administration has done.”
On the same day Raoul wrote his letter, Maggie Hickey, the independent monitor for assessing the city’s compliance with the consent decree, warned slashing those positions would be a “devastating blow” to CPD reform.
The attorney general’s letter — which he characterized as “notice under the consent decree of my office’s intent to seek court enforcement of the City’s obligations if the currently proposed cuts to CPD’s budget are adopted” — was addressed to Johnson and also sent to city lawyers and Hickey.
“Because of where we are — and the patience and perseverance it has taken to get to this point — I must remind you that the consent decree is not optional,” Raoul wrote, adding: “I understand that the City’s budget constraints require difficult choices to be made. But a binding, court-enforced consent decree takes certain choices off the table.”
Johnson on Thursday touted to reporters crime statistics that show drops in homicides, shootings and other violence in Chicago as proof the police department is moving in the right direction, but the positions Raoul and Hickey are urging him to keep are civilian posts tasked with implementing the reform mandates in the federal consent decree.
The Police Department has thus far made sluggish progress in complying with the binding court order that came about more than five years ago, in the wake of the Chicago police murder of Laquan McDonald.
The mayor also did not directly answer a question on whether he decided on the cuts over the objections of Chicago police Supt. Larry Snelling, saying “every single department went through a series and an exercise of ways in which we can find more efficiencies.” The top cop has thus far distanced himself from Johnson’s budget plan — most pointedly this Tuesday during a court hearing centered on progress in the consent decree.
“From the very beginning when these cuts were presented to us, the number one thing we wanted to make sure is that we had people to continue to work toward the consent decree,” Snelling told a federal judge, Hickey and other parties to the court order. “Those were the positions that we fought for first. We’re going to continue to fight for them”
Johnson pitching some form of CPD cuts was not a huge surprise given the city’s nearly $1 billion budget deficit for 2025, and hardly the only aspect of the mayor’s $17.3 billion spending plan that has drawn complaints. And slashing sworn positions would have likely elicited just as much furor from the pro-law enforcement crowd. Still, the volume of vacant positions disappearing is staggering.
The mayor’s $2.1 billion Chicago police budget plan for next year cuts staffing for the Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform by 57%, from 65 to 28. Established by interim CPD Superintendent Charlie Beck in 2020, the office was meant to combine all of the functions tied to consent decree efforts under one office, including training, professional counseling, and reform management.
The mayor’s budget recommendation would cut staffing for the Office of Constitutional Policing and Reform from 65 to 28. Established by interim Superintendent Charlie Beck in 2020, the office was meant to combine all of the functions tied to consent decree efforts under one office, including training, professional counseling and reform management.
CPD’s training division, which trains new recruits for service and current employees for promotions, would shrink by some 27% under Johnson’s proposal, taking it to 237 employees.
The professional counseling division that provides mental health care and other assessments for CPD employees would drop by the same percentage, from 35 to 25 employees. The reform management group responsible for tracking reform efforts consistent with the consent decree would shrink from 19 to 17.
The Office of Community Policing would see its staffing dip from 141 down to 55 employees, a decrease of 61%, under Johnson’s proposal. That office coordinates with other city departments to “create a more cohesive partnership” between CPD and the neighborhoods they serve, according to the department’s 2023 annual report.