Local Station Finds Chicagoans Were on the Hook for $107.5 Million in Police Misconduct Lawsuits in 2024
Taxpayers will continue to be hurt twice by misconduct until individual police officers are held accountable.
Chicago taxpayers reportedly spent at least $107.5 million in 2024 to resolve police misconduct lawsuits—a problem that will be difficult to solve unless the city is able to identify and hold misbehaving police officers accountable.
An analysis from WTTW News found 122 police misconduct lawsuits involving the Chicago Police Department (CPD) were resolved in 2024. The most expensive area of police misconduct in Chicago continues to be associated with wrongful convictions, making up 42 percent of the total taxpayers have spent on police misconduct lawsuit verdicts and settlements since 2019.
In 2024, $45.2 million went toward resolving wrongful conviction. Almost half of that was paid to Eddie Bolden, who spent 22 years incarcerated for two wrongful murder convictions in 1996. In 2014, an appellate judge ordered a new trial after finding that Bolden's initial trial lawyer had been ineffective, and the Cook County State's Attorney's Office ultimately dropped the charges. Bolden subsequently sued, alleging CPD detectives ignored witnesses who could have verified his alibi during the time of the murders. In October 2021, a jury awarded him $25.2 million, but this was reduced to $20 million in 2024 after an appeal.
The largest payment for a single police misconduct incident that Chicago made last year went to Nathen Jones. The 15-year-old was left unable to walk, speak, or feed himself after Officer Jhonathan Perez engaged in an unauthorized police pursuit of the car Jones was a passenger in for rolling through a stop sign. In 2024, Chicago's City Council Finance Committee approved a settlement for $45 million—enough to cover the estimated cost of Jones' medical care for the rest of his life. Taxpayers will cover $20 million while the remaining $25 million will be paid by Chicago's insurance company.
Although payouts for problematic police behavior may often be warranted, the mounting cost to taxpayers is significant. Chicago's 2024 budget only accounted for $82 million of taxpayer dollars to cover the cost of police misconduct lawsuits. Therefore, taxpayers will now bear the brunt of an additional $25.5 million. This all comes shortly after the city instituted a $165 million tax hike for Chicagoans to help cover a $982.4 million budget deficit.
Taxpayers are hurt twice by the bad actions of police: first by dysfunctional policing and second by increased taxes to fund reforms and lawsuit resolutions. The increased costs have yet to yield a brighter future as Chicago officials have failed to take policing reforms sufficiently seriously. In the nearly six years since a federal court order mandated CPD changes, only 9 percent have been put in place.
One glaringly obvious reform officials continue to delay is the adoption of a system to flag CPD officers who have received multiple police misconduct allegations. The University of Chicago Crime Lab created a system to do just that, but several years after its completion, the CPD has yet to implement the system citywide. Other analyses have concluded that a small minority of repeat offenders is responsible for nearly half of police misconduct lawsuit costs. But until Chicago officials are willing to hold problematic CPD officers accountable, costs will continue to rise and Chicagoans will be footing the bill.
