Chicago's fire department is drawing more diverse applicants than it has in years, but a new watchdog report finds that diversity evaporates by the time promotions are handed out. According to the Chicago Office of Inspector General, recent promotions to lieutenant, captain and battalion chief within the Chicago Fire Department remain overwhelmingly White and male, even as the initial pools of firefighter and EMT applicants have come to reflect the city's racial and ethnic makeup.
The findings come from an OIG report examining CFD hiring periods in 2006, 2014 and 2022, as first detailed by WTTW News. Investigators found that while initial applicant pools reflected Chicago's diversity, representation shifted as candidates moved through the hiring process — with women declining across every racial and ethnic category during onboarding to enter the fire academy, and women along with some racial and ethnic groups disqualified at higher rates during that same academy onboarding stage. More than 95% of promotional candidates are men, the report found, and White candidates posted higher average promotional exam scores that may have contributed to their higher promotion rate, even though exam performance was otherwise consistent across applicant groups.
City hiring preferences given to Chicago Public Schools graduates and military veterans changed the makeup of applicants who advanced, according to the report, and may have decreased the representation of Black applicants during the 2022 hiring period. The Chicago Department of Human Resources has not examined the effect of those preferences on CFD's goal of achieving city-reflective demographics, per the report. Department of Human Resources and the Office of Public Safety Administration jointly manage CFD's hiring and promotional processes.
Inspector General Calls Diversity Goal Important
Chicago Inspector General David Glockner said reflecting the city's diversity in firefighter and EMT hiring and promotions is an important goal. White candidates made up more than 60% of candidate pools, the report notes, even as White and male candidates comprised a majority of CFD's most recent promotions to lieutenant, captain and battalion chief.
In response, CFD said it will continue working with city partners to identify opportunities to improve the process and will ensure qualified candidates have a fair opportunity to advance their careers, the department told the outlet.
A Department Still Far From Its Contractual Target
The gap between promotion outcomes and CFD's stated diversity goals is not new. Every collective bargaining agreement between the city and Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 since 1980 has included Appendix G, which set a goal for minority representation across all ranks to reach 45%, split into 30% Black and 15% Hispanic personnel, according to the City of Chicago. CFD's active workforce remains far short of that decades-old benchmark, even as Chicago's overall population is roughly one-third White, one-third Black and one-third Hispanic.
A 2021 audit by the Chicago Office of Inspector General previously examined CFD.
Legal History and Waning Federal Oversight
Disputes over CFD's hiring and promotion practices have a long legal history. In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Lewis v. City of Chicago that Black firefighter applicants could pursue Title VII disparate-impact claims over a 1995 written entry exam, a case that eventually resulted in federal court orders requiring back pay and hiring offers to more than 100 Black applicants, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. A separate federal court mandate on minority hiring was dissolved by a federal judge in 2022.
The Office of Inspector General has audited these processes. The report on CFD promotions follows political friction over the same issue: in May 2024, CFD brass and mayoral administration officials drew sharp criticism from City Council members after failing to attend a joint Police and Fire Committee hearing on department racial disparities, a meeting aldermen called amid complaints from Black firefighter advocacy groups about discrimination, denied promotions and representation, as reported by FireRescue1.
Broader Pattern Across City Public Safety Hiring
The disparities identified within CFD have drawn scrutiny elsewhere in Chicago's public safety hiring system.
The scrutiny arrives even as CFD firefighters are set to receive substantial raises. The Chicago City Council approved a new collective bargaining agreement for Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 in October 2025 featuring salary increases of 21% to 25% and $185 million in retroactive pay scheduled for 2026, according to WTTW News, with the agreement ratified by 73% of voting union members.
