By Adam Andrzejewski -
As civil unrest loomed and a pandemic raged last year, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot fully compensated police and other first-responder public safety employees.
However, new payroll data from Freedom of Information Act requests filed by our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com show that the number of regular police officers between 2019 and 2020 dropped by nearly 400 positions.
With fewer officers and more to do, the existing employees made a lot of money—but the city became less safe and, for taxpayers, more expensive.
Nearly 1,000 police and fire employees made between $200,000 and $430,000 during the year. Full-time first responders—including officers, firefighters, sergeants, lieutenants, and others—averaged $122,000. That’s cash compensation alone and does not include the cost of benefits.
Lightfoot poured $626.5 million into overtime, comp time, retroactive pay, fitness pay, duty availability pay, and 29 other compensation avenues for 20,615 employees in the police and fire departments. This was up from $482.3 million in extra pay during 2019.
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