The Chicago Police Department spent more than its City Council-approved budget in five of the last six years, costing Chicago taxpayers more than $501.2 million in unanticipated expenses, records show.
The only year that CPD did not overspend its budget was 2020, when with department operations upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, CPD ended the year nearly $128.5 million under budget, according to the city’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports from 2019 to 2024.
Allowing CPD to spend unlimited sums of taxpayer money is a “crazy way to run a city,” said Justin Marlowe, a professor in the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, and the director of the Center for Municipal Finance…