Cost for protecting Obama's home: $2.2 mil

CHICAGO, July 21 (UPI) -- Chicago police have spent at least $2.2 million to secure President Barack Obama's Windy City residence since he was elected, city documents indicate.

The federal government will reimburse the city for more than $1.5 million of the costs, but the city said nearly $650,000 -- the cost of protecting Obama's home since his inauguration through April -- is not scheduled currently to be paid back, the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday.

"There is no reimbursement mechanism currently in place for this (post-inauguration) money," the city's Office of Legal Affairs said in the written response to the newspaper Freedom of Information Act request.

Darrin Blackford, a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service, said the protection agency wasn't "equipped or funded" to provide reimbursement.

"We rely heavily on the assistance we receive from our law enforcement partners," Blackford told the Tribune.