Mayor Brandon Johnson has agreed to sweeten the last two years of a police contract signed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and extend the deal for two additional years, with operational changes that could help solve murders and reduce CTA crime.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported in August that Johnson was trying to settle unresolved portions of the police contract after suffering a pair of defeats at the bargaining table.
At the union’s request, Johnson also retained Jim Franczek as city’s lead negotiator even though Lightfoot fired Franczek for essentially endorsing Paul Vallas over Johnson in the April 4 mayoral runoff.
On Friday, the new round of negotiations produced surprising results that could pay political dividends for both Johnson and Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara.
The tentative agreement calls for doubling the annual pay raise that rank-and-file police officers were scheduled to receive in 2024 and 2025—from 2.5% to 5%. During the two-year extension that ends on June 30, 2027, police officers will receive annual pay raises in the 3-to-5% range, depending on the cost of living.
A $2,000-a-year retention bonus for officers with at least 20-years on the job will be replaced by a one-time bonus of $2,000 for all officers.
Johnson and newly-appointed Police Superintendent Larry Snelling get a key change that could help boost Chicago’s dismal homicide clearance rates.
They won the right to create Los Angeles-style rotating teams of homicide investigators working ten-hour days. Each team would get all of the murders in a given area during a one-week period, then spend the next five weeks solving those homicides.
“Our detectives do great work, but the reality is, they’re overwhelmed,” Catanzara said. “This allows them to basically focus on working homicide cases and not have to worry about getting new homicides to deal with, and kind of distract them from leads that they’re working.”
“The ability to get cooperation...will benefit from this rotation approach,” Catanzara said. “Detectives can focus on these leads and not get taken away because another homicide got thrown in their box.”
Yet another operational change could help reduce violent crime on the CTA. It would reduce—from 80% to 50%—the share of officers assigned to mass transit detail on the basis of seniority.
“They wanted the ability to control a little bit more who gets sent to mass transit so it’s not just the most senior officers going there. They wanted to be able to put younger officers who, in their theory, might be a little more, I don’t want to say `aggressive,’ but that was Supt. Snelling’s word,” Catanzara said.
Franczek could not be reached. The mayor’s office released a press release quoting Johnson as saying that avoiding arbitration would reduce the financial to risk to Chicago taxpayers.
“With this agreement in place, our administration can now direct our full focus on implementing accountability measures within the Chicago Police Department, supporting police officers, and a robust community safety agenda,” Johnson said in the release.
Catanzara spent the last four years battling Lightfoot over myriad law enforcement issues.
Johnson has tried to forge a more collaborative path—even though Catanzara famously warned of an “exodus like we’ve never seen before,” with as many as 1,000 veteran officers choosing not to work for a mayor who had a history of supporting the concept of defunding the police.
On Friday, Catanzara was the first to admit he was wrong about Chicago’s new mayor.
“We certainly didn’t endorse Mayor Johnson. But I give him kudos for really giving marching orders that labor contracts need to be figured out,” Catanzara said.
Without mentioning Lightfoot by name, he said, “From where we were dealing with her as opposed to dealing with him is night and day. I will give him credit for saying, `Get it done.’ “
The new contract would expire on July 1, 2027. It must be ratified by the rank-and-file and by the City Council.