Mayor Brandon Johnson has canceled police academy classes for this month and next — reneging on his own promise to exempt the Chicago Police and Fire departments from a citywide hiring freeze.
And at an emergency cabinet meeting Tuesday, Chief Operating Officer John Roberson ordered other department heads to identify personnel cuts — beyond reductions already made — and submit proposals by Friday. The goal: $75 million in additional savings in 2025.
Each department head will be given a specific budget number to reach in what city officials referred to as an “exercise.”
Departments already had been required to cut 3%, but “they’re saying that doesn’t go far enough. They need to find another $75 million,” said someone at the meeting where Roberson lowered the boom.
“The framing of the thing was, ‘This is just an exercise. We hope not to have to do any of this,'” the source said. “Someone else described this as a ‘break-the-glass exercise.’ They’re talking about it in these emergency terms and they don’t have a political strategy. They basically said, ‘If you get rid of all of the 1,077 vacant positions [in the corporate fund], that doesn’t go far enough.’”
Roberson refused to comment on the budget-cutting mandate.
Johnson must close a $223 million budget gap by Dec. 31 and erase a $982.4 million shortfall next year, forcing him to consider the property tax increase he campaigned against.
He delayed unveiling his 2025 budget by two weeks — until Oct. 30 — to buy time to find solutions.
Mayor Brandon Johnson was at Sweet Holy Spirit Church at 8621 S. South Chicago Ave. on Monday to announce the appointment of six new CPS board members after the resignation of seven other members the week before.
Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times
Shutting down the police academy for at least two months did not sit well with the police union’s City Council allies. They noted the Chicago Police Department already is 1,693 officers below its January 2019 level.
Between January 2022 and June 2024, CPD processed 28 academy classes, averaging 68 recruits each, over a 30-month period to make up for time lost during the pandemic.
“We are short police officers and we’re having trouble recruiting police officers. So to pull the rug out from under those who were ready to be trained is a big mistake ,” said Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd), Johnson’s hand-picked chair of the Council’s Committee on Public Safety.
“If you’re making operating cuts right now, you need to use a scalpel — not a sledgehammer. And closing the police academy for [at least] two months is akin to using a sledgehammer.”
Hopkins noted his own local police district is struggling to get by with 300 fewer officers than it had when he was elected to the Council in 2015.
“We went on a recruiting campaign earlier this year trying to present the job of a Chicago police officer as an attractive job to younger people. … We saw applications increase. To wipe that out by telling people they’re not gonna be trained after they’ve been hired is counterproductive. It’s a waste of money spent in recruiting,” the chairman said.
Ald. Marty Quinn (13th) wasn’t surprised Johnson “would try to defund the police.”
“It takes 18 months to have a police officer go through the academy and go through all of the training before they’re on the street,” Quinn said. “We can ill afford to lose any time in training officers.”
Far South Side Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), among Johnson’s most outspoken Council critics, said shutting down the academy will have a “huge impact” on crime fighting.
“You can’t say, ‘We’re exempting police and fire,’ then turn around and cancel two months’ worth of classes,” Beale said.
“Crime is the number one issue in the city and we’re playing games with it. We’re playing games with ShotSpotter. This administration doesn’t have a clue of what they’re doing.”
Johnson initially announced a citywide hiring freeze, but then, two days later, exempted police and fire departments under pressure from first-responders and their Council champions.
By shutting down the academy and ordering layoff lists, Johnson may well be playing a game of chicken with the Council.
If the alternative is hundreds of layoffs, furlough days and program cuts, Johnson may hope to convince an increasingly rebellious Council to approve a politically-unpalatable property tax increase.
“That’s a time-tested political strategy. Create a scare tactic and use that to pressure reluctant legislators to vote for a property tax increase,” Hopkins said.
“But it isn’t necessary and it’s not going to fool anyone. We all understand already that the crisis that we’re in is real and it’s dire.”
It could even backfire. Hopkins said the Council could easily call the mayor’s bluff at a time when 41 of its 50 members — including 13 from the 19-member Progressive Caucus — have signed a letter condemning the mayor’s school board power-play.
“It puts the City Council in a rebellious mood. … Tensions are high. Emotions are running high. This is among the most stressful environments that I’ve seen at City Hall,” Hopkins said. Regardless of the final choices, “it’s going to be a challenge to get to 26 votes” — the number needed to pass the budget.
Contributing: Tom Schuba