Chicago — Records show the city of Chicago is paying for thousands of hours of police overtime at street festivals, despite city law requiring event organizers to pay for it.
chicago Organizes hundreds of street festivals annuallyAbout 1,300 were organized between 2021 and 2023. For those festivals, approximately 2,800 Chicago police officers worked a total of 27,000 hours of overtime to patrol the events, according to a CBS News Data Team analysis of police overtime data and special event permits.
Based on past police spending, overtime that is not paid is likely to cost city taxpayers millions of dollars.
Last week, aldermen grilled officials from the city's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, demanding to know how much police resources were used on neighborhood street festivals, while officers were exhausted amid multiple competing demands. Concern was raised about.
The hearing came as city officials were looking for revenue that would help them avoid raising property taxes, and after a busy summer that took officials out to neighborhoods and events like the Democratic National Convention, NASCAR and Lollapalooza. The police department has been dealing with years of declining staffing and now has about 1,000 fewer officers than before the pandemic.
“It is my understanding that there are many events in the city where, for whatever reason, we do not ask the event organizer to reimburse us for things like police resources, police and fire, paramedics, traffic control,” Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd) said during a hearing last week. “For example, some events spend a lot of money on these types of things, like Lollapalooza. Yet other events don't charge for these things.”
City law requires the police commander for special events over 12 shifts to “calculate the estimated hourly cost for personnel required for the event and … charge the applicant for such services.”
But after months of public records requests, the Finance Department was not able to generate invoices for city employees participating in street festivals. Department provided challan data for traffic control assistants at events riot fest, Lollapalooza and several 5Ks, and referred CBS News to the city's Public Safety Administration for police overtime.
That department, which has a separate budget from the police department, handles contracts such as ShotSpotter for the police and fire departments and the Office of Emergency Management and Communications. The Public Safety Administration did not respond to records requests about police overtime for special events and officials there did not respond to requests for comment.
Local aldermen have also started asking questions. Alds. Raymond Lopez (15th), Matt O'Shea (19th), Ald. Janet Taylor (20th), Chris Taliaferro (29th), Scott Vaguespec (32nd), Andre Vasquez (40th), Bennett Lawson (44th), Lenny Mana Hoppenworth (48th), and Maria Hayden (49th) all weighed in on this issue on DCASE Put pressure. At last week's hearing several people asked for evidence of required reimbursements.
Some also requested a list of Chicago special events that require additional police resources, while others asked for a cost analysis for various special events.
“I think there is a lack of equity in the way we are charging special events to reimburse the city of Chicago, and as a legislator facing a billion dollar budget deficit and calling it my Constituents are being asked to put up with higher property taxes,” Reilly said. “Using police officers and paramedics to support large, private and often profit-making special events, that's not a luxury for us. Bureaucrats may think this stuff is free, but our constituents, the taxpayers, pay for it. Pay.”
In an interview with Block Club Chicago, Reilly clarified that concerns about unpaid reimbursements come from members of the police department and “other departments that are involved with special events.”
Reilly said, “This is unacceptable. And the worst part is that we will never get a true accounting of how much we are actually owed.” “I don't think anyone can afford the expense or overtime of the police.”
Street festivals can boost a neighborhood's economy, raising awareness and funds for local groups and nonprofits. They often require months of planning and coordination with various city departments before a permit can be issued.
Despite the rising production costs of street festivals, The city offers significant concessions, including deep discounts on street closures and covering the cost of taking privatized parking meters offline.
According to city ordinance, organizers typically pay a $100 permit fee if applied for on time. Street closures cost event producers $100 per block per day for a downtown street festival permit and $50 for other parts of the city. Filming permits for TV shows to close a road are more expensive, about $500, while permits for developers to move heavy equipment and cranes can cost thousands of dollars.
The veterans also pressed DCASE officials about the revenue loss from placing the burden of parking meters on taxpayers for special events. Chicago Tribune The city reportedly paid $600,000 to the city's private parking meter company to cover the revenue lost from taking parking meters offline during NASCAR over the past two years.
With a budget gap of nearly $1 billion next year, the hidden costs of hosting large-scale events have become more apparent.
Despite these concessions, Special Events Management CEO Hank Zemola believes that requiring him and other event producers to pay for police overtime would effectively eliminate most festivals.
Zemola has been involved in the production of Chicago special events since the 1970s. His company is listed on at least 23 permit applications this year, covering some of the city's most popular street festivals: Pride Fest, Northalstead Market Days, Ribfest, Taste of Greektown, Chinatown Summer Fair and more.
Zemola said, “I don't think anyone can afford the expense or overtime of police. I think about 90% of the incidents will happen.”
All special event producers are required to submit security plans to police for feedback before the city's events department issues a permit. The amount of personal protection is determined by a variety of factors including incident history, location, current events, and crime trends. Event organizers suggest a security plan and the police department accepts, rejects, and makes recommendations.
Zemola only uses off-duty officers for the street festivals he produces. He says it's an expensive endeavor, costing thousands of dollars depending on the size of the event.
Because event security plans are evaluated by the police department, Zemola argues that his company should not be responsible for overtime costs for police officers sent to their events.
“It's like someone comes and paints your house and then says, 'I want you to pay for it.' … Well, I didn't want you to paint my house,'' Zemola said, 'I ordered it all. [security] So we don't have to do that.”
However, as per Finance Department records, the Special Event Management has paid for traffic control services for various athletic events organized by it.
Duff Entertainment, the organizer of the 2024 Taste of Randolph, declined to be interviewed, but said in a statement that the company has not been billed for police overtime associated with this year's festival.
“West Loop Community Organization (WLCO) and Duff Entertainment have confirmed that they are actively looking into this and have reached out to the City of Chicago to seek clarification on next steps,” Duff Entertainment spokesperson Kelly Packer said in a statement. Have gone.” statement.
Big special events are showing their colors
Unpaid police resources being spent on for-profit neighborhood street festivals is not the only issue. The city ultimately oversees all the major events that are quintessential to life and culture in Chicago, and employs officials to manage them overtime.
Chicago deployed more than 2,400 officers to last year's Pride parade. Although officials demanded reduce that number this yearfinally police officer From leave of officers to patrolling of employees was cancelled. After the parade.
The city would typically cover the costs associated with parades such as Pride, St. Patrick's Day, Bud Billiken and the upcoming Magnificent Mile Lights Parade.
Organizers of some events, such as Lollapalooza and the Chicago Marathon, will reimburse the city for overtime. C3 Presents, which organizes Lollapalooza, was billed more than $100,000 last year for traffic control personnel at the concert, in addition to police overtime.
Meanwhile, Special Event Management was billed nearly $5,000 for traffic assistance for the Abbott 5k and more than $11,000 for the Shamrock Shuffle in 2023, according to Finance Department invoice data. But that figure doesn't include the approximately 113 police officers who worked overtime at the Shamrock Shuffle last year.
And while financial costs are the top concern at budget hearings, aldermen also highlighted how special events divert police from neighborhoods, while contributing to officer burnout.
“We have several large-scale events happening in one day,” said Ald. Matt O'Shea (19th). “Hundreds of police officers, days off cancelled, double pay. Cash registers ringing.”
Of the 67 police officers who worked at Taste of Randolph last year, 27 were working on what was supposed to be their day off. Of the approximately 350 officials expected to work the 2023 Pride Fest, 254 — or 73% — were on hand on the canceled day.
According to personnel, more than 1,800 officers worked the concert weekend during Lollapalooza weekend last year, which was 16% of the entire police force for that month. Data from Office of Inspector General,
And of those 1,800 executives at Lollapalooza last year, about 1,180 – or 65% – worked on their day off. More than 500 officers were pulled out of the neighborhood to staff the concert, according to the Unit's analysis of overtime staff data covered by the program. Additional officers ranging from detectives to forensics were focusing on the crowd rather than the cases.
While veterans are seeking to overhaul the system, several at DCASE's budget hearing said the city needs to find and close the loopholes it has created.
At last year's City Council budget hearing, Police Supt. Larry Snelling said that the police presence at street festivals was “a serious strain on manpower.”
CBS and Block Club previously reported that the police department “does not provide private security for events, but does provide resources to ensure the safety of all people who live, work and visit event areas.”
DCASE officials revealed at last week's hearing that the department is not part of the invoicing process for reimbursement of police overtime, with several aldermen concerned that permits are being continuously issued to event producers with unpaid tabs.
“We need to do a better job of identifying where we need to charge more,” O'Shea said. “We need to do a better job when we are allowing these events.”
This story was produced in collaboration with Block Club Chicago, a nonprofit newsroom focused on Chicago neighborhoods, and CBS News Chicago. Melody Mercado contributed to this report.