Welcome to Newswire — your weekly guide to Chicago government, civic action and what action we can take to make our city great, featuring public meeting coverage by City Bureau’s Documenters.

Quote of the Week

“[For] people who are experiencing mental illness, on average, especially if you're living with serious mental illness, the data is around a 20-year decrease in life expectancy compared to peers. So mental illness is really a driver of life expectancy differences, and we as a health department think this is where our role is.”

— Jenny Hua, interim deputy commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health on how mental health affects Chicago's life expectancy gap between Black and non-Black residents.

[Chicago Council on Mental Health Equity quarterly meeting, May 12, 2025]

A (not so) healthy Chicago

There is a growing disparity in life expectancy between Black and non-Black Chicagoans, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health. 

The department has established its Healthy Chicago 2025 Strategic Plan, which aims to close the 11.4-year average life expectancy gap between Black and non-Black Chicagoans. The plan was developed after conducting community health assessments to collect and analyze health data of residents.

This gap, which is driven by chronic disease, homicide and opioid overdoses, is deeply intertwined with mental health, said Jenny Hua, CDPH interim deputy commissioner. The strategic plan’s theory of change is to lower barriers and expand access to all health care, but especially for mental health. This includes a focus on improving hospital discharge follow-ups, reducing schizophrenia hospitalizations and continuing to increase the amount of mental health calls that actually get appointments for care.

Representatives from the Office of Emergency Management & Communications also shared information on Smart911, a free app allowing residents to create detailed safety profiles that are shown to dispatchers only when someone calls 911. Profiles can include information for multiple family members, medical conditions, building access, and mental health needs. The app also features a text-to-911 option for emergencies when speaking is unsafe. 

As of now, 58,000 Chicagoans are registered. Council members suggested clearly communicating privacy safeguards, including that information is private, not searchable, and only viewable during emergencies.

What you can do:

Learn more about Smart911: Read up on Smart911 and how to sign up here.

Attend a Chicago Board of Health meeting: The first Board of Health meeting will be held on 9 a.m. Tuesday, June 10 at 111 W. Washington St., Floor 12, Room 1212. Click here to access the meeting agenda or Zoom link ahead of time.

Attend a City Council Committee on Health and Human Relations meeting: Check for upcoming City Council meetingshere at the Chicago City Clerk website. To learn more about how you can give public comment – in-person or virtually – at a City Council meeting, clickhere.

Should pretextual traffic stops be in the consent decree?

Chicago has entered the next stage of developing a traffic stop policy that would dictate how and when Chicago police officers can stop drivers based on minor registration or equipment violations. Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability member Aaron Gottlieb gave a presentation on and answered community questions about the current status in creating a policy on traffic stops for Chicago Police, including adding the policy to the consent decree. 

Gottlieb, along with the 14th Police District Council members shared various resources for community members to learn more about the traffic stop policy, including a summary of documents, a draft of CPD’s initial traffic stop policy and the CCPSA’s proposed revisions and response to the CPD policy. 

In December 2023, as a result of groups such as the Free2Move and Impact for Equity who have called on the Police Department to end pretextual traffic stops, the CCPSA began organizing a series of community listening sessions across the city to provide Chicagoans opportunities to share personal experience with police, provide feedback on current policies and discuss potential reforms to the Police Department's practices around traffic stops.

At a January listening session, a public commenter described being handcuffed and beaten by officers during a traffic stop. Using traffic stops in the search of illegal guns has resulted in the disproportionate targeting of Black and brown drivers on the South and West Sides. Although CPD is required to document all stops, a 2024 investigation from Injustice Watch and Bolts found unreported traffic stops have increased under Supt. Larry Snelling. Nearly 200,000 traffic stops in 2023 were not documented or reported to the state, the investigation found.

The Police Department’s proposed policy would allow officers to continue stopping drivers as a pretext to investigate a more serious crime provided that it strikes “a balance between identifying those engaged in criminal conduct and the community's sense of fairness,” according to the draft. Some commissioners want to ban certain types of traffic stops and raise the standards for when an officer can search someone’s car – but the oversight body doesn’t agree on what that standard should be, according to a letter responding to the department’s proposal. 

Now that both CCPSA and CPD have submitted their proposals, the City will work with the Illinois Attorney General to review and to finalize it.

What you can do:

Submit feedback: Community members can submit feedback on both CPD’s policy language and the CCPSA’s proposed revisions by May 24 using this form.

A crisis still looms

Illinois lawmakers are reportedly nearing a deal regarding the future of Chicagoland’s transit, which would require a significant influx of funding to bail out an extreme budget shortfall. 

In March, the Regional Transportation Authority warned that 1 in 5 Chicago workers lose access to buses and trains as local public transit systems face a $771 million shortfall for the 2026 fiscal year, ensuring major cuts to transit across the region. 

Such cuts could include suspending partial or complete service at at least four of the eight CTA train lines, closing or slashing services to over 50 stations, as well as eliminating up to 74 of 127 bus routes, leaving 500,000 CTA riders without a nearby bus stop, officials said. 

Nearly 3,000 transit workers would be laid off with a potential loss of $2.6 billion in wages every year caused by reduced mobility, increased congestion and job losses, officials said.

Since launching the “Save Transit Now” campaign — an effort to inform the public of the dire state of the region’s transit and encourage Chicagoans to contact their state representatives — the RTA has reported 25,000 website visits, 9,000 letters sent to legislators as well as strong legislative and senior leadership support, RTA officials said.

In order for the RTA to truly be in the clear, the Illinois General Assembly must agree to a funding plan before the end of its spring session May 31.

What you can do:

Email your legislator: Send an email to your Illinois State legislator and ask them to take action.

A version of this story was first published in the May 21, 2025 issue of the Newswire, an email newsletter that is your weekly guide to Chicago government, civic action and what we can do to make our city great. You can sign up for the weekly newsletter here.

Have thoughts on what you'd like to see in this feature? Email Civic Editor Dawn Rhodes at dawn@citybureau.org.