Voight’s conversation with Devlin about the Intelligence shutdown in Chicago PD omits that 49% of calls are going unanswered, which

seems like a major talking point in favor of reinstating the unit. However, since Mayor Benning’s office is sitting on the report, the 51 are likely the only ones outside of the mayor’s office to know about the dispatch layoffs.

 

 

The report doesn’t come up in Chicago Med, either, although this makes much more sense. The Chicago Med season 11 premiere involves Gaffney responding to a mass casualty incident, so emergency response teams would have known about the tragedy regardless of dispatch layoffs. But this information may begin spreading between the Chicago casts once Fire’s Mouch inevitably tells PD’s Trudy.

 

 

Chicagoans might have some vague awareness of a crime wave, but the incitement of riots justifying a 2026 One Chicago crossover’s stakes would hinge on the specific details of the report being leaked. In fact, Benning and Davis are likely sitting on the report specifically to prevent such chaos as might occur once criminals learn about the response time delays.

 

 

A 2026 One Chicago crossover hasn’t been announced at the time of writing, but groundwork will certainly be laid as Chicago Fire works to grapple with the fallout from the 911 firings. If the franchise follows this story all the way to its logical conclusion point, all three series’ casts should find themselves in greater collective danger than ever before.

Previously, the biggest of all One Chicago crossovers was arguably 2014’s event comprising Chicago Fire, Law & Order: SVU, and Chicago PD. It was Dick Wolf’s first three-part franchise crossover, unfolding across two cities. But a 2026 One Chicago crossover could deliver non-stop suspense, with Gaffney overrun as Intelligence and the 51 race to save Chicago from widespread, catastrophic anarchy.

In ABC’s The Rookie season 7, episode 12, a prank tweet convinces Los Angeles criminals they have free rein without risk of police interference, immediately engulfing the city in riots. However, the current reality of One Chicago is that the police literally aren’t responding, meaning a similar outbreak of destructive violence could take much longer than 42 minutes to resolve.

Voight’s conversation with IAD Commander Mark Devlin curiously doesn’t mention that nearly half of emergency calls aren’t receiving responses (more on that later), but the combination of rising crime rates and scaling back of firehouse staff could lead to widespread destruction if Chicago’s criminal element realizes they currently have the upper hand. It happened in another show just last season.

While explaining why Kiana Cook left Chicago PD in season 13, Voight reveals that the Intelligence Unit still hasn’t been reinstated. This has led to a 9% increase in homicides and 22% rise in gun violence, the latter of which plays directly into the main conflict of Chicago PD’s season 13 premiere. Davis mentions this same uptick in Chicago Fire.

In response to budgetary concerns and overworked first responders, Chicago is cutting back on emergency services on a rolling schedule. They’ll almost always be short on Truck, Engine, or Squad, while remaining firefighting and rescue teams will have to cover more ground to accommodate other houses’ closures. And it’s not too hard to see where the worst-case scenario could lead.