Former Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson is officially off of the city’s payroll, days after he was fired from his position as the head of the second-largest police department in the United States.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office made the announcement Wednesday evening, saying that Johnson had retired from his “career service rank” with the department.
“We have been informed that effective today, Mr. Johnson retired from his career service rank and is no longer employed by the Chicago Police Department,” the mayor’s office said in a statement.
According to Lightfoot, Johnson remained with the force as a lieutenant after he was removed from his position as superintendent on Monday.
“He reverted to his career service status, which means that, typically, when police officers get promoted up to exempt status, whatever their last career service status is, whether it’s lieutenant or captain, they leave the exempt status and they return to that,” Lightfoot said after giving a speech at Bradley University on Wednesday.
Lightfoot had also said that she expected Johnson to be off the department’s payroll by the end of the week, and Johnson made it official by retiring on Wednesday.
