The city’s rodent abatement program is “unlikely to achieve longterm control of the rat population” due to an emphasis on reactive efforts rather than proactive solutions, according to a new report by the city’s watchdog. The audit — published Tuesday by the Office of Inspector General — analyzed the Department of Streets and Sanitation’s dedicated rat control program from July 2023 through July 2024, roughly tracking with Mayor Brandon Johnson’s first year in office. The report found that the department’s Bureau of Rodent Control did not satisfy “key elements” of a common rat abatement approach known as Integrated Pest Management, which is endorsed by the federal government and Illinois Department of Public Health. Specifically, that meant city workers during the audited time frame prioritized poisoning rats on a case-by-case basis rather than implementing more comprehensive and permanent solutions to curb their populations, such as monitoring sanitary conditions in specific areas and establishing thresholds for intervention, according to the report.
The bureau “did not survey or monitor the root causes of rat infestation over time. It treated individual complaints to 311… as thresholds for action rather than targeting interventions based on overall impacts to quality of life, economic activity or public health,” according to the report. The city’s “primary goal was to poison rats in response to complaints rather than addressing the root causes of rat infestations while using poison as a last resort.”
