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/Term of the Week

Police District Council / noun

Police District Councils are elected bodies with three members. Each council represents one of the city’s 22 police districts. These councils provide a grassroots level of representation for addressing concerns and advocating for change around public safety and policing issues.

Hey there, Police District Councils…

We’re less than one year away from Chicago’s municipal elections, which means we’re on the verge of another hectic local election season. While the usual offices will be on the ballot, including mayor and all 50 alderpeople, the 2027 election season will also feature smaller, lesser known public bodies, including Police District Councils.

Here’s a quick refresher on what Police District Councils are and what their members do:

Some police district councils are working to explain what they do to the public — here’s an example from the 19th district (Source)

Police District Councils are the result of the Empower Communities for Public Safety ordinance, passed by Chicago City Council in July 2021. It created two types of bodies: a citywide Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability and District Councils, which are elected in each of Chicago’s 22 police districts. The first members of these councils were elected in 2023.

While the citywide commission can hire or fire public safety officials and oversees policy issues affecting the entire department, district councils discuss policing issues specific to their area, inform the community about what the citywide commission does, gather input from neighbors about public safety and develop community policing initiatives. 

​​The goal of both the CCPSA and the district councils was to give Chicagoans a meaningful new role in police oversight and explore and advance alternative effective approaches to public safety. 

Despite that, it’s not always clear what district council members do and how residents can get involved and informed. Here’s where Chicago Documenters can help. 

Documenters have been covering district council meetings from the jump. We’ve seen how these meetings can bring together concerned neighbors to speak up and make changes. For example, Chicago Documenters have covered District Council meetings that tackled issues of migrants sheltering inside stations, opened discussions about public safety goals and resulted in a no-confidence vote in a high-ranking police official. 

At a February meeting of the 9th District Council on the Southwest Side, neighbors shared many perspectives about what public safety means to them and who is responsible for keeping people safe. That same week, over at the 4th District meeting, the only person who showed up was our Documenter. So there is a lot of variation in terms of how much these district council members are hearing from the communities they’ve been elected to represent. 

This is how public comment can be so valuable. If you want to say your piece to your police district councilors, here’s how:

  1. Find your local police district here.

  2. Head to ccpsa.chicago.gov and select your district council’s specific page.

  3. Check out your district council’s calendar and attend an upcoming meeting. (If you can’t attend, see below for how you can still send a written comment). 

  4. Make a public comment:

    1. Anyone interested in giving public comment should write their name on a card provided at the meeting and give it to the members of the Council or staff in the meeting room any time within 30 minutes of the start of the meeting.

    2. NOTE: Public speakers are limited to two minutes. (Pro-tip: Try timing yourself while you read what you’d like to say!) The public comment session is limited to 20 minutes. If the number of interested speakers exceeds the time dedicated to public comment, speakers will be selected by a random drawing.

    3. Anyone may submit a written comment by delivering it at the meeting or by emailing the district council’s email (All district council emails follow the same format DC[insert district number]@cityofchicago.org. Example: the 14th Police District Council email is DC14@cityofchicago.org.) Some boards accept written comments directed to specific people, so it’s important to check the meeting agenda when it is posted (which should be at least 48 hours before the meeting).  

And here’s another way to get involved: Police District Council members are elected to four-year terms, which means Chicagoans will get another chance to decide who sits on their local council during the municipal elections in February 2027.

What you can do:

Catch up on the history & headlines:

  • Police District Councils work to rebuild trust in law enforcement, push for CPD accountability | WTTW

  • 14th Police District Council grapples with fierce divisions | South Side Weekly

  • ECPS coalition wins a wide majority of Chicago’s new Police District Council seats | The TRiiBE

  • Find all past Documenters coverage of Police District Councils here.

Attend a CCPSA meeting: Check for upcoming CCPSA meetingshere at the City of Chicago website. Anyone may submit a written  public comment by delivering it to the public meeting or by emailing it to CommunityCommissionPublicComment@cityofchicago.org.

A version of this story was first published in the April 8, 2026 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.