>> The city of Chicago's financial condition is dire.

And for the 6th consecutive year, the Chicago Police Department has blown its overtime budget.

It spent nearly 30% more than city council set aside for the entire year in just 6 months.

W t Tw News reporter Heather Sharon joins us now with more on the cost of police overtime.

Header break the numbers down for us.

How much did Chicago spend on police overtime during the 1st half of 2024?

Chicago taxpayers spent 129 million dollars to pay members of the Chicago Police Department to work overtime.

>> Even though the City council's budget only gave the department 100 million dollars for overtime for the entire year.

And as you said, this is a recurring problem and it comes even after Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling stopped paying officers to sit downtown with their life splashing to prevent crime.

>> And it is significantly more than any other city department.

In fact, all other the 21 other departments combined for 121 million dollars.

And that includes 43 million dollars that went to members of the Chicago Fire Department to work overtime.

So the city is facing a massive budget crunch right now, can they afford to spend this much over time?

So it's not clear where this money is going to come from because if police department spends just as much in the 2nd half of the year as it did during the 1st half of the year on overtime.

>> They will end the year spending 258 million dollars.

And oh, by the way, we had the Democratic National Convention for a week or 2 in August.

And that meant officers had the regular days off canceled.

And there is no doubt that that will cost a significant amount of overtime where that money is going to come from.

It's not clear even as Mayor Brandon Johnson isn't puts limits on overtime for other departments other than the police and fire department.

It's not gonna make a huge difference.

Superintendent Larry Snelling his promise as Chicago City Council about a year ago that he would get a handle on employee overtime, vowing to be a lot more fiscally responsible.

>> Did he live up to those promises?

Well, like most things involving Chicago's budget, it's complicated.

The city changed the way reports overtime on its data portal and techie and I were able to sort of try to compare apples to apples and we realize that last year in the 1st half 2023.

>> The police department actually spent more than 163 million dollars on overtime.

So, yes, the city spent about 20% less the 1st half of this year than it did last year.

But that's still a lot of money.

What did snowing in Johnson had to say about overtime spending?

Well, the mayor's office to get back to us, but the police department gave us a statement that said we regularly review our use of overtime to ensure it is being used appropriately while balancing the need for public safety.

We understand our fiscal responsibility and will continue ensuring overtime is being used to maintain and bolster public safety.

We'll keep asking mayors office for comment.

As I know.

You will have a Sharon.

Thanks so much.