Civilian Office of Police Accountability – BGA Policy 2026 Budget Snapshot

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability is the city's investigatory body for several broad categories of police misconduct, including excessive force, death in custody, domestic violence and improper search and seizure accusations. COPA only has investigatory authority over its specifically assigned categories of wrongdoing; all other accusations are investigated by the Chicago Police Department's internal affairs bureau. A breakdown of which issues fall within COPA's remit and which remain with internal affairs can be found on COPA's website.

Departmental Highlights

Snapshot: Appropriation & Staffing Changes from 2025 Budget

*Historical comparisons typically go back to 2011. For COPA, the average annual rate of change is given starting from 2018, the first full budget year following the department's transition from its predecessor IPRA.

• COPA's proposed $15.8 million in 2026 departmental appropriations fall $4.5 million short of the roughly $20.3 million mandatory minimum as calculated by the city's budget office. As in previous years, OBM closes the gap by counting an estimated "fringe" cost of departmental pensions and benefits towards the funding floor, a practice that diverges from the rest of the city's budget process in several significant ways:
  • In current city practice, annual budgets do not treat pension/benefit costs as part of departmental budgets for any purposes other than meeting mandatory funding minimums.
  • There are no COPA-specific appropriations for pension and benefits, which are treated as citywide lump-sums for each of the city's four annuity and benefit funds under the Finance General section of the budget.
  • The fringe cost used to reflect COPA share of citywide pension/benefits appropriations is an estimate based on a fringe multiplier for an employee at the citywide average salary covered by the Municipal Employee's Annuity and Benefits Fund, not a specific appropriation or calculation based on the department's budgeted positions.
  • COPA minimum budget is set at 1% of non-grant appropriations for the Chicago Police Department. While the budget office counts COPA estimated fringe towards that budget floor, it does not include an estimate of CPD's fringe in the 1% calculation, resulting in an apples-to-oranges comparison of COPA appropriations plus estimated fringe to CPD appropriations without estimated fringe.
  • If CPD fringe were included in the budget floor calculation, even at an estimate based on the citywide average, COPA's budget plus fringe would fall $7.2 million short of CPD budget plus fringe. (The actual gap would be larger still, since Policemen's Annuity and Benefit Fund employees receive much higher fringe rates than MEABF employees.)
• COPA is down a net -4 positions in the proposed budget, with one Community Outreach Coordinator position added and one position each removed from the Intake Aide, Senior Public Information Officer, Paralegal II, and Investigator titles. Additionally, the single position budgeted for the Senior Equity Officer title has been eliminated from the department.
• Salaries and wages saw COPA's only substantial single-category appropriation increase, with all other increases $10,000 or less.
• COPA's largest appropriation cut was in the Consent Decree category, down $120,000 (-15.5%0 from the previous year.)

Historical Context

A series of reforms passed in 2016 and 2017 included replacing the Independent Police Review Authority (IPRA) with a new Civilian Office of Police Accountability, or COPA. The 2017 budget was the first to feature COPA rather than IPRA, and included a significant increase in budgeted headcount, not all of which was ever realized or retained.

2017 also saw a smaller but still substantial increase in COPA appropriations from IPRA's previous levels, ramping up further in 2018, and overall growing since then, with fluctuations year to year.

Taking 2018, COPA's first full budget year post-transition, as the starting point, departmental appropriations increased at an average rate of 1.9% annually, or 0.4% adjusted for inflation, compared to a citywide average rate of 10.7%, or 6.5% inflation-adjusted. (The city budget increased dramatically from 2021 onwards due to the influx of federal pandemic relief funds.)

Over the three complete budget years for which local fund actuals/encumbrances data is available, COPA spent on average 86.9% of its locally funded budget, very near to the citywide average 86.4% local fund spend.

Staffing levels at COPA were initially budgeted to rise dramatically during its transition from IPRA, but quickly stabilized at a lower level than originally planned. Taking 2018 as the starting point, COPA's budgeted headcount has increased at an average rate of 0.9% annually, compared to a citywide average annual change over the same time period of -0.01%.

From February through September of 2025, the months for which the city released full-time position vacancy data, COPA averaged a 17.6% vacancy rate, compared to the citywide average of 11.2%.

13 of the department's budgeted full-time positions were persistent vacancies, meaning that the same title/division/section/subsection combination was vacant for all eight months of available data:

Budget Floor

COPA is one of three city departments with a mandatory minimum budget set in its establishing ordinance. A BGA Policy analysis earlier this year found multiple issues with the way the city calculates the minimums and determines that the relevant departments have met them.

COPA's proposed $15.8 million in 2026 departmental appropriations fall $4.5 million short of the roughly $20.3 million mandatory minimum as calculated by the city's budget office. As in previous years, OBM closes the gap by counting an estimated "fringe" cost of departmental pensions and benefits towards the funding floor, a practice that diverges from the rest of the city's budget process in several significant ways:

• In current city practice, annual budgets do not treat pension/benefit costs as part of departmental budgets for any purposes other than meeting mandatory funding minimums.
• There are no COPA-specific appropriations for pension and benefits, which are treated as citywide lump-sums for each of the city's four annuity and benefit funds under the Finance General section of the budget.
• The fringe cost used to reflect COPA's share of citywide pension/benefits appropriations is an estimate based on a fringe multiplier for an employee at the citywide average salary covered by the Municipal Employee's Annuity and Benefits Fund, not a specific appropriation or calculation based on the department's budgeted positions.
• COPA's minimum budget is set at 1% of non-grant appropriations for the Chicago Police Department. While the budget office counts COPA's estimated fringe towards that budget floor, it does not include an estimate of CPD's fringe in the 1% calculation, resulting in an apples-to-oranges comparison of COPA appropriations plus estimated fringe to CPD appropriations without estimated fringe.

If CPD fringe were included in the budget floor calculation, even at an estimate based on the citywide average, COPA's budget plus fringe would fall $7.2 million short of CPD budget plus fringe. (The actual gap would be larger still, since Policemen's Annuity and Benefit Fund employees receive much higher fringe rates than MEABF employees.)

Budgeted Position Changes

COPA is down a net -4 positions in the proposed budget, with one Community Outreach Coordinator position added and one position each removed from the Intake Aide, Senior Public Information Officer, Paralegal II, and Investigator titles. Additionally, the single position budgeted for the Senior Equity Officer title has been eliminated from the department.

Appropriations

COPA is entirely locally-funded, with all its appropriations coming from the corporate fund.

Largest Appropriations

As with most departments, personnel costs make up the bulk of COPA appropriations, with salaries and wages on payroll by far the largest expense category.

In 2024, the most recent complete budget year for which local fund actuals and encumbrances data is available, COPA spent 86.8% of its locally-funded budget.

Change from Previous Year

Salaries and wages saw COPA's only substantial single-category appropriation increase, with all other increases $10,000 or less.

COPA's largest appropriation cut was in the Consent Decree category, down $120,000 (-15.5%0 from the previous year.

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