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Understanding the City of Chicago Police Department’s Budget (2022)

September 27, 2022

Summary

The second annual CPD Budget Explainer, the Office of Inspector General aims to provide stakeholders and taxpayers with basic, foundational information about the City’s budget and budget process, and how CPD’s budget is built.

Executive Summary

CPD’s budget appropriation has increased each year since 2016, with the exception of 2021 when it decreased slightly from $1.76B in 2020 to $1.71B in 2021.

CPD’s funding dipped slightly from 2020 to 2021, a time period during which nationwide protests and calls to “defund the police” followed the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis; 29 some other municipalities saw significant decreases in police funding during this time.30 In Chicago, Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot’s office conducted a budget survey between August 31, 2020 and September 21, 2020. The online survey asked participants about City services they most value.31 The survey garnered 38,336 total responses, and in the aggregated results published by the Mayor’s Office, 37,679 respondents stated a desire to see resources reallocated from existing programs or services to fund other priorities. Of those 37,679 respondents, 87% stated that they wanted to see police funding reallocated to other City services.

Understanding the City of Chicago Police Department’s Budget (2022) - publication cover