Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson has excluded the Chicago Police Department (CPD) from a proposed citywide hiring freeze after facing intense backlash, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday.

The Johnson administration announced Wednesday that citywide employment Freeze Candidates for government positions announced Monday always excluded the Chicago Police Department, even though they did not answer questions from the media or City Council members. According to According to the Tribune, Chicago Budget Director Annette Guzman sent a memo to commissioners and department heads after the initial announcement informing them that the hiring freeze would affect all departments and positions in city government, including the Chicago Police Department. According to In the Chicago Sun-Times.

Lakeisha Gage Woodard, a spokeswoman for Johnson's budget team, told the Tribune that the Chicago Police and Fire Departments were not included in the city's initial decision to impose a hiring freeze. Some City Council members said they had not received a word from city officials about whether the Chicago Police Department was included in the hiring freeze. (RELATED: 'Hurting Black People': Chicago Barbershop Voters Slam Democrats Over Immigration Policy)

“I didn't know if the hiring freeze applied to paramedics, police departments and fire departments,” Chicago Councilman Chris Taliaferro, Johnson's chairman of the Police and Fire Committee, told the Tribune. “I [the Johnson administration] “I think it's a bad decision not to exempt police and fire because we're constantly losing officers and we can't keep up with the attrition.”

The freeze was meant to cover a $982.4 million shortfall in the city's budget scheduled for fiscal year 2025. The shortfall is due to “rising personnel, pension and contract costs and ongoing revenue challenges,” Guzman said. said Monday, according to ABC 7.

“Initially we were told it was a total hiring freeze,” Public Safety Committee Chairman Brian Hopkins said. said The Chicago Sun-Times reported, “The City Council rushed to make the announcement Monday morning without sufficient consideration, never expecting it would have to backtrack. It faced backlash from council members. The Council then reconsidered and realized there were indeed jobs that should be exempt from the hiring freeze.”

Johnson has shifted his views on policing in recent years, saying he wants to promote “smart policing” rather than “defund the police” during his 2023 mayoral campaign. After the 2020 George Floyd riots, Johnson appeared to reverse his stance after saying defunding the police was a “political goal.”

The mayor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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