More than 80 Chicago Police Department employees are on no-pay status and have been stripped of their powers for disobeying the city’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate.

       According to figures provided by the city, the total number of law enforcement personnel who’ve lost pay over the issue stands at 243 since the October deadline to report their vaccination status, likely indicating many have since complied with the requirement.

       But 83 Chicago police members remained on no-pay status as of this week — more than double the total about a month ago.

       As for the Chicago Fire Department, the most recent figures had 76 members placed on no-pay status since the deadline, 15 of whom remained in that designation as of Thursday.

       Under Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s directive, all city employees had until Oct. 15 to report their vaccination status but could choose to undergo regular COVID-19 testing, rather than get shots, through the end of the year. After police unions challenged the vaccine mandate in court, though, a judge suspended the Dec. 31 date for those members to be fully inoculated, saying that needed to go through arbitration.

       Chicago Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara speaks at an October rally outside City Hall against the vaccine mandate for city employees. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

       Now the city is taking a victory lap over an arbitrator’s ruling this week that several unions, including the one representing firefighters, must adhere to Lightfoot’s vaccination policy.

       Under the decision issued Wednesday, the union employees have until the end of Dec. 31 to get the first shot and until Jan. 31 for the second if they opted for a two-dose vaccine. If employees covered by the decision don’t comply and don’t have a religious or medical exemption, they will lose pay.

       Arbitration for the police union is due to start Dec. 27.

       When the October deadline first passed, Lightfoot’s administration was more reluctant to crack down on those who failed to indicate whether they were vaccinated on a city portal. But in recent weeks, the Police Department appeared to be moving more swiftly through the ranks of those disobeying.

       That has happened as the share of first responders complying with the reporting rule has gone up. As of Monday, 92% of Chicago police employees and nearly all of Chicago fire employees had filled out the city portal. But for both departments, a little under a quarter of their ranks indicated they are unvaccinated.

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       Earlier this month, the city also dropped its lawsuit against the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police over President John Catanzara’s push for officers to defy Lightfoot’s policy. City lawyers said the issue was moot because Catanzara’s predictions of mass noncompliance have not yet materialized.

       “The past few weeks have shown what I have said from the beginning to be true: that our brave police officers are smarter than their FOP leadership, and care more about their city, their fellow Chicagoans, and upholding their sworn oath to protect and serve, than they do Catanzara’s frivolous demands to stop working,” Lightfoot said in a statement at the time.

       After the arbitrator’s ruling in her favor, Lightfoot prevailed on union leaders to “work with us to save lives.”

       But in a video posted on social media Wednesday, Catanzara continued to suggest the union will keep up the fight. He touted a court-ordered pause of the city’s Dec. 31 vaccine deadline and repeated his criticism of officials with the city and beyond.

       “I hope everybody understands the need to change what happens at City Hall, what happens in Springfield and everywhere else,” said Catanzara, who has indicated he will run for mayor in 2023. “These politicians are ruining this city and we cannot let it happen another day longer.”

       ayin@chicagotribune.com

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