Chicago pays millions in 2024 to settle police misconduct suits

American Civil Liberties Union Policy Director Ed Yohnka says the growing number of legal settlements that Chicago taxpayers are being forced to pay out stemming from police misconduct cases calls for immediate action.

“The level and the number of payouts that Chicago taxpayers underwrite each year for officer misconduct, officer abuse, officers breaking protocol really reflects the fact that we need to make an investment in the city in reforming police training and accountability,” Yohnka told The Center Square. “What we see is a system where the system literally allows misbehavior until it costs the city millions of dollars, rather than insisting on good constitutional behavior.”

City data shows taxpayers in 2024 were forced to shell out at least $107.5 million to settle lawsuits against officers alleging misconduct that ranged from wrongful convictions to improper pursuits. In addition to being the most taxpayers have been left on the hook for in any year since 2011, the total also represents a 43% increase over 2023, easily topping the $82 million annually set aside by the city to resolve such cases.

Even as the Chicago Police Department has been subject to a federal court order to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers since 2019, over the past five years, taxpayers have spent at least $472.4 million to resolve such lawsuits as the department has fully satisfied just 9% of the requirements laid out for it as part of a consent decree.

“I think what taxpayers ought to feel is a sense of missed opportunity because the city spends so much time engaged in litigation, in putting together the resources to pay out these things that what we don't focus enough on is ways in which we can police the streets of the city in a constitutional fashion that also enhances public safety,” Yohnka added. “It would be helpful if in fact there was simply more investment in real reform upfront. We'd be paying less of these kinds of damages on the back end.”

Yohnka argues the city already has at least some of the answers it should be seeking.

“There is a multi-hundred page document, a consent decree, that is literally a roadmap for reform,” he said. “It really, fundamentally breaks down to two things, supervising and holding officers accountable for when they violate rules. The second thing is to meaningfully engage the public in helping to address the problems of every neighborhood. It's going to look different in one neighborhood as to how they should be policed, want to be policed, need to be policed, then it's going to look in another.”

In 2024, city officials resolved at least 122 police misconduct lawsuits with the largest payout for a single incident being $20 million paid to a 15-year-old boy injured in a 2021 unauthorized chase incident.