2026 Murders to Skyrocket

Conehead making useless noise again:

• Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed budget for 2026 would impose new limits on overtime spending by the Chicago Police Department while acknowledging it was unrealistic to expect CPD to spend less than $200 million next year to compensate officers for working extra hours.

  In all, CPD’s budget is set to swell to $2.1 billion, increasing by $37.9 million to cover the cost of salary increases required by agreements with unions representing members. That includes an estimated savings of $30 million from a partial hiring freeze of long vacant positions, officials said.

  Johnson’s proposed spending plan would double CPD’s overtime budget from $100 million to $200 million, the first increase since 2020, when the budget for police overtime went from $95 million to $100 million, records show.

  Budget Director Annette Guzman told reporters Supt. Larry Snelling said he was confident CPD would spend less than $200 million on overtime next year. However, Chicago taxpayers have already paid $190.1 million to officers for working extra hours through September....

Chicago is going to end up with just over 400 homicides this year (probably), not a record, but an improvement over years past, and that was with how many days off and weekends cancelled? How many OT initiatives?

The main way to cut OT long term is to hire more bodies and that ain't happening.

Another way is to revamp the Department, top-to-bottom, eliminating all sorts of useless spots and getting more bodies on the street. We don't see that in the works.

A third way is to close two more Districts along with an Area and spread the manpower out, usually in combination with the previously mentioned top-to-bottom restructuring. Anyone see that in the planning stages? 

So less coverage, more cuts, lots more elearning and a continuation of the useless policies of the last three decades.

Better hope for a cold winter, a rainy spring and a mild summer, otherwise it's back over 500.