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$100 per person in Chicago to pay verdicts and settle police misconduct claims in 2025
https://news.wttw.com/2026/07/10/chi...-city-analysisChicago taxpayers spent nearly $259 million in 2025 to resolve lawsuits alleging Chicago police officers committed a wide range of misconduct — including wrongful convictions and improper pursuits, according to a city report required by the federal court order known as the consent decree.
That is more than three times what Chicago taxpayers paid to resolve police misconduct lawsuits in 2024, according to the annual report from the Chicago Department of Law detailing the cost of lawsuits filed against the Chicago Police Department.
That tally does not include the $101.3 million the city agreed to spend to resolve 184 lawsuits filed by Chicagoans who were wrongfully convicted based on what they allege was fabricated evidence gathered by former Chicago Police Sgt. Ronald Watts, who was convicted in 2013 of taking bribes, and other officers, according to the report.
The vast majority of those payments will be made in 2026, records show, helping the city to manage the financial fallout of the scandal that engulfed Watts and the officers he supervised.
Had the city paid to resolve the lawsuits alleging misconduct by Watts in 2025, when the City Council voted to settle them, Chicago taxpayers would have paid a total of $360.3 million to resolve police misconduct lawsuits, according to the report.
Annually, the city sets aside $82 million to cover the cost of police misconduct lawsuits as part of the Chicago Police Department’s nearly $2 billion budget.
However, according to the city’s audited annual financial report for 2025, CPD spent just $131.1 million to resolve police misconduct lawsuits.
CPD overspent its total 2025 budget by $162.5 million, according to Chicago’s annual financial report.
