The Oak Park Police Department made progress in officer staffing last year, but the force is still far from fully staffed.
Oak Park Police Chief Shatonya Johnson told Wednesday Journal in April that the department had 86 sworn officers with the goal of getting to 116 by “mid 2026.” The OPPD finished 2025 with 92 sworn officers on staff and is still eyeing 116 as a goal for the coming months, according to the village.
In 2019, the department had 109 sworn officers. According to the police department’s annual report for 2025, 2024 brought the greatest amount of officer turnover that the department’s seen in recent years. The department hired 19 new officers that year but lost 20 to either retirement or resignation, ending 2024 with 85 officers on staff, according to that report.
“We’re just doing a huge push,” Johnson told Wednesday Journal in an interview last April. “I am personally outside recruiting every day I’m not in the police department.”
In response to the hiring deficit, Oak Park has changed officer compensation and benefits to try and bring more police recruits into the fold, including salary increases, generous family leave offerings, $4,000 sign on bonuses to recruits who earn spots as patrol officers, retention bonuses and approved hiring for lateral transfers from other police departments, Johnson said.
The department will also operate with a larger budget this year in part due to increased funding for recruiting.
In total, the department will operate with a budget of $30,159,380 this year, up by more than a million from 2025. The increase over last year is driven primarily by staff salaries and benefits increases.
The department is now asking for a $40,000 increase to its budget for background checks in anticipation of increased hiring next year, according to the department’s budget proposal.
The department’s pension contribution is increasing by $637,159 next year, as the department’s fringe benefits funding goes up by more than $855,000. Personnel compensation is set to go up by $261,483, as laid out in the police department’s collective bargaining agreement.
