In a bid to enforce fiscal restraint and promote the well-being of law enforcement personnel, Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago has made a move that puts a tighter leash on one of the city’s most contentious budgetary issues: police overtime spending. According to an announcement released by the Mayor’s office, Mayor Johnson signed Executive Order 2025-11, effectively capping overtime expenditures for the Chicago Police Department (CPD) to ensure that any spending beyond the set budget cap has a layer of oversight from city administration and legislative bodies.
The Mayor contended that over-indulgence in overtime allowances is a thing of the past with this new mandate, expressing that “this executive order brings added discipline and accountability to the overtime process which has been long overdue,” as obtained from his office, and emphasizing the dual goals of fiscal discipline and prioritization of both officer and community welfare caught in the broader city budget’s narrative. While emergencies remain an exception where the Mayor and the Office of Budget Management (OBM) can authorize additional funds, CPD will now be required to jump through several hoops such as detailing operations needing more overtime, affected units or job titles, how they plan to fund it within their existing budget, and crucially, what steps are taken to manage officers’ overtime usage and wellness.
Today’s Executive Order reflects a continuation of financial prudence and a move towards a policing strategy that seeks a balance between effective law enforcement and trust from the community it serves. The directive follows a history of the CPD’s overtime spending breaking the bank, regularly overshooting the city’s financial capabilities, and adding additional pressure to a metropolis already in a tangle of fiscal constraint and accountability expectations…