Interim Chicago Police Superintendent Fred Waller is pulling in both a city pension and a city paycheck, newly released records show, for a combined annual haul of roughly $352,256. Waller, 64, retired from the Chicago Police Department in 2020 and has since worked in a civilian leadership role while collecting pension payments that total about $141,608 a year. The arrangement is surfacing as City Hall wrestles with mounting legal payouts and ongoing budget pressure.
According to WTTW News, records from the Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago show Waller has received monthly pension checks of more than $11,500 since his August 2020 retirement, with the benefit climbing roughly 3% each year. The same records list his civilian salary in the superintendent’s office at about $210,648, which pushes his combined annual compensation to around $352,256. WTTW reports it obtained the figures through a freedom of information request to the pension fund.
Waller’s presence at the top of the department is hardly new. He spent 34 years with CPD, previously served as interim superintendent from May to September 2023 and then stayed on as a deputy director, as reporting by WBEZ notes. His retirement followed a 28-day suspension after a 2023 meeting in which he used a now-infamous turn of phrase about staffing, an episode that resurfaced during the leadership transition. City and CPD spokespeople have not provided new comment on his current pay setup.
How He Is Paid
Per WTTW News, Waller’s pension is listed at $141,608 a year, while his civilian salary tops $210,648. The pension is scheduled to rise about 3% annually through cost-of-living adjustments. Fund records show he received a pension payment in June, and under current rules those checks are set to continue for the rest of his life. WTTW also reports that Waller is expected to remain interim superintendent through the end of 2026 while the Community Commission searches for a permanent leader.
Legal Limits On Earning A Second Pension
Illinois lawmakers moved to clamp down on so-called double dipping in 2017, passing legislation that blocks retired officers from entering another defined-benefit police pension while still drawing an existing annuity and instead steers employers to offer a defined-contribution plan, according to the bill text. The change, carried as House Bill 418 and reflected in state files, followed a string of high-profile cases in which retirees returned to public jobs and became eligible for additional defined-benefit pensions. The statute makes clear that a returning officer can keep earlier pension payments but cannot build up a second defined-benefit pension under the same rules. Legislative documents are posted on the Illinois General Assembly website.
Why It Matters For Chicago's Budget
The timing of Waller’s pay package lands in the middle of Chicago’s broader police budget headache. The department has run sizable deficits, and the city is still digging out from costly payouts tied to police misconduct. As Chicago Tribune reported, City Hall proposed borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars to cover settlements and related costs, a move critics say papers over deeper fiscal strain. Local reporting and city financial records show CPD repeatedly exceeded its 2025 budget and that Chicago has reserved large sums to resolve wrongful-conviction claims involving former officers.
What Comes Next
The Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability has opened a nationwide search for a permanent superintendent and has until Nov. 15 to send three finalists to the mayor, who then gets 30 days to pick a nominee for City Council to confirm, according to the commission. Whoever ends up running CPD will inherit both operational challenges and a financial mess that includes ballooning overtime, settlements and pension obligations. In that context, questions about pay, pensions and transparency are unlikely to fade.
Waller has not given a new interview since taking the interim post, and the mayor’s office has stuck to procedural details about the search process. As Chicago moves through budget hearings and rolls out more settlement agreements, how the city pays its top cops, and what it owes them in retirement, is almost certain to stay a live issue.
