In 2024, Chicago spent a whopping $22.6 million on police overtime for special events like music festivals, street fairs, and sports races. But here’s the catch—only $2 million has been reimbursed, leaving the rest of the bill for taxpayers to cover.
City law says that event organizers should pay for police services after 12 shifts. But an investigation by Block Club Chicago and CBS Chicago found that the city hasn’t been charging event organizers for those costs as required. In fact, a lot of the overtime costs for special events have gone unpaid, and city officials say it’s because the system for tracking and billing is “decentralized”—meaning it’s not organized well.
Between 2021 and 2023, Chicago hosted over 1,300 events, with nearly 2,800 officers working thousands of overtime hours. For major events like Lollapalooza and the Chicago Marathon, the city spent about $7.2 million on police overtime. However, it only received reimbursements for a couple of big-ticket events, amounting to just under $2 million.
This is a jump from 2023, when the city spent $19.2 million on overtime for these events, but it’s unclear how much of that was paid back. The city’s Finance Department has been slow to provide records on how much has been reimbursed for things like street festivals, which adds to the confusion.
Despite this, the city’s Cultural Affairs and Special Events department isn’t in charge of making sure event organizers pay for the police overtime. Aldermen have expressed concerns that the city is allowing events to go forward even if they haven’t paid their bills, creating a big gap in accountability. Even though the police department tracks the costs of each event, they don’t have the power to stop an event from happening unless there are serious safety concerns.
Some event organizers feel they shouldn’t have to pay for extra police overtime, arguing that the city suggests how much security is needed. Hank Zemola, who runs several popular events like PrideFest and Ribfest, says it’s unfair for the city to charge them when they’re just following the city’s own security plans.
As the city looks for ways to save money, aldermen are pushing to fix this issue and make sure event organizers pay their fair share. They hope that with better planning and clearer processes, the city can handle these costs more efficiently and stop the financial burden from falling on taxpayers.
