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Some MPD officers have made six figures in overtime already this year [1]
['Deena Winter', 'Christopher Ingraham', 'More From Author', '- October']
Date: 2023-10-26
Eight months into 2023, Minneapolis Police Lt. Robert Berry had already made more money working overtime — $164,700 — than his annual salary of nearly $131,000.
The 31-year MPD veteran had earned the most overtime of 650 MPD employees (including civilian workers) as of Aug. 25, according to data the Reformer received through a public records request.
Right behind him is Sgt. Stephen McBride, who earned $153,000 in overtime in eight months. McBride is a prolific overtime earner, making more than three times his base salary last year, when he made over $390,000, easily surpassing MPD Chief Brian O’Hara’s salary, $271,721.
They are among 14 MPD officers who had already earned six figures in overtime during the first eight months of the year; 61 in total had earned at least $50,000 in overtime.
Minneapolis teachers, by comparison, make about $78,000 annually.
The average officer working overtime had made $25,000 by late August. Most MPD officers average between eight and 10 hours of overtime per week.
The department is racking up record amounts of overtime: Eight months in, MPD had already paid $14.4 million in overtime — already exceeding the $10 million the city budgeted for overtime in 2023 and eclipsing the amount of overtime spent each of the past four years.
MPD overtime ballooned from $6.4 million in 2019 to $10.3 million in 2020. After George Floyd’s police killing sparked protests and riots, a wave of police officers left MPD — often with workers’ comp settlements and/or duty disability retirements — leaving the remaining officers plenty of overtime, especially as the city endured a spike in crime.
Overtime was higher in 2021, at $12.8 million.
Since Floyd’s killing, MPD staffing has dropped to historic lows, from nearly 900 cops to 585.
Since last fall some officers have been paid two times their hourly rate — rather than the traditional time-and-a-half — for working overtime because the department began paying them double for “critical staffing overtime” to cover staffing gaps.
In the spring of 2022 by then-Interim Police Chief Amelia Huffman enacted overtime limits to give officers time to recharge and prevent mistakes. Huffman banned officers from working all seven days in a week, working more than 16 hours in a row or putting in over 74 hours per week (with some exceptions) including off-duty work, where officers provide security for private entities.
O’Hara temporarily rolled back most of those limits.
In December 2022, he instituted a new policy limiting the number of hours officers can work to 160 hours per two-week pay period — or 80 hours per week — including off-duty work. And officers must have at least one full day off every pay period.
The policy was amended in February to require officers to take at least eight hours off every 24 hours, and only deputy chiefs can make exceptions.
MPD did not respond to a request for comment.
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[1] Url:
https://minnesotareformer.com/2023/10/26/some-mpd-officers-have-made-six-figures-in-overtime-already-this-year/
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