Chicago taxpayers reportedly paid out at least $107.5 million in settlements to victims of police misconduct in 2024.
WTTV conducted an analysis looking at how much the city has paid to settle police misconduct lawsuits over the past year.
Chicago taxpayers spent at least $107.5 million to resolve lawsuits alleging Chicago police officers committed a wide range of misconduct — including wrongful convictions and improper pursuits — in 2024, setting a new record, according to an analysis of city data by WTTW News.
That is the most Chicago taxpayers have paid to resolve police misconduct lawsuits in a single year since 2011, and 43% more than in 2023, according to WTTW News’ analysis of reports released by the Chicago Department of Law.
Annually, the city sets aside $82 million to cover the cost of police misconduct lawsuits. The actual cost of resolving those lawsuits in 2024 was nearly 31% more than anticipated, forcing taxpayers to spend an extra $25.5 million, according to the analysis. In 2024, the City Council scrambled to close a $982.4 million budget deficit by hiking taxes by $165 million.
The report notes that the Windy City has settled at least 122 lawsuits related to police misconduct. The largest settlement went to Nathen Jones, a 15-year-old boy who was injured by Chicago police officers who pursued him in a car chase, according to WTTV. The incident left Jones without the ability to walk, speak, or feed himself. He requires around-the-clock care as a result of the incident.
The Chicago City Council agreed Wednesday to pay $57.2 million to settle three lawsuits claiming Chicago police officers committed a wide range of misconduct, including launching an unauthorized pursuit that left a 15-year-old boy with a traumatic brain injury, unable to walk or talk.
In April 2021, Nathen Jones was riding in a car that failed to stop at Wood and Huron streets in Ukrainian Village. Chicago Police Officer Jhonathan Perez, driving an unmarked police SUV, gave chase — even though Chicago Police Department policy prohibits officers from pursuing those who are only suspected of committing a traffic violation and Perez never notified dispatchers of the pursuit.
The pursuit ended at Damen and Grand avenues when the car that Jones was riding in collided with another car, leaving the teen severely and permanently injured.
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The Chicago Police Department (CPD) has ramped up efforts to hold corrupt officers accountable. The agency has nearly doubled the amount of internal disciplinary actions over the past year, according to The Chicago Tribune.
Records obtained via the Freedom of Information Act show CPD supervisors, mostly sergeants, filed more than 5,300 Summary Punishment Action Requests — “SPARs” — in 2024, a sharp increase from the 2,700 SPARs initiated in 2023.
The rise in internal CPD discipline comes as the external disciplinary process — where fewer, but more serious cases, such as those involving deadly force incidents, are handled — remains greatly curtailed as a legal fight carries on between the city and Fraternal Order of Police in the Illinois Appellate Court. No decision is expected anytime soon.
However, given the increased payouts to victims of police misconduct in the city, it appears these efforts have not yet bore much fruit. This is rather ironic, given that Democrats dominate Chicago’s government. Folks on the left like to make a big show of caring about police brutality – especially against Black Americans. Any time an African American is unjustly killed or assaulted by police, they make a spectacle of themselves, decrying systemic racism in policing.
Yet, what they don’t acknowledge is that most of the systemically racist practices among police occur in cities run by Democrats. These are cities in which corrupt officers are rarely held accountable for their actions, regardless of the ethnicities of the Americans whose rights they abuse.
Still, they will blame Republicans and conservatives for police misconduct. If I didn’t know any better, I’d be tempted to think corrupt policing is not a problem Democrats are truly serious about addressing. After all, why solve the issue when you can simply use it to promote their cherished “everything is racist” narrative?
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