6 takeaways from Oaklandside’s investigation into OPD overtime

Yesterday we revealed an investigation into additional time spending on the Oakland Police Division, specializing in town’s highest-paid officer.

It uncovered persistent record-keeping errors, seemingly inconceivable work schedules and main questions concerning the division’s monetary administration throughout Oakland’s price range disaster.

Practically 200,000 individuals have learn this report to date. However when you simply desire a fast abstract, listed below are six key suggestions.

One officer earned almost half 1,000,000 {dollars} in additional time alone

Timothy Dolan, who heads OPD’s visitors unit and is vp of the police union, earned $493,247 in additional time in 2024. Mixed along with his base wage and different wages, his whole wage was $711,000.

That is nearly double the wage of the police chief and nearly thrice what the mayor makes.

Dolan labored 3,304 hours of additional time on high of his 1,938 common hours – the equal of greater than two and a half full-time jobs. His whole compensation, together with retirement and well being care advantages, was $879,000.

Six-figure additional time hours have nearly tripled in three years

As Oakland’s price range disaster has deepened, forcing layoffs of civilian workers and freezing spending on metropolis packages, police additional time has exploded. In 2021, 58 officers earned greater than $100,000 in additional time. By 2024, that quantity had nearly tripled to 169 officers.

The variety of officers incomes greater than $200,000 in additional time greater than quadrupled over the identical interval from six to 27. OPD spent greater than $55 million on additional time in fiscal yr 2024 – $31 million greater than budgeted.

Practically half of 1 officer’s additional time hours have been lacking necessary documentation

OPD was capable of produce additional time documentation displaying which duties have been carried out for under roughly half of Dolan’s recorded hours. Officers should full varieties itemizing the dates, occasions and particular actions for all additional time work.

The division couldn’t discover this knowledge for 1,556 of Dolan’s 3,304 additional time hours – nearly 47%.

This follows a sample established in 2017, when the OPD Workplace of Inspector Common requested additional time data for 10 officers, and the division was solely capable of present a few quarter of the requested varieties.

The division continues to depend on outdated paper data, regardless of plans to digitize the system.

If documented work schedules are correct, they pose critical security considerations

Extra time knowledge supplied by OPD reveals that work patterns, in response to some, can result in issues of safety.

On July 9, 2024, Dolan reported working 23 hours. The following day he labored 16 hours, adopted by three consecutive 15-hour days. At one time, he labored not less than 19 consecutive days, with shifts of 15 hours or longer on all however two days.

Reviewing visitors accident experiences resulted in a whole lot of costly additional time hours

Dolan spent not less than 815 hours of additional time – equal to 5 months of full-time work – reviewing visitors accident experiences. This paper examine was by far his most time-consuming documented additional time exercise.

The experiences are used primarily for insurance coverage claims and technical functions and are typically not admissible as court docket proof.

As a result of Dolan was a sergeant close to the highest of OPD’s pay scale in 2024 (with a base wage of roughly $163,000), his additional time charge made this job significantly costly for town. Dividing the work amongst different officers may have diminished prices considerably.

Doland and OPD informed us there’s a giant backlog of collision experiences and that his work in reviewing and approving them is a service to town.

Is not additional time resulting from understaffing?

OPD’s $386 million price range represents just below 20% of Oakland’s whole spending, making it by far town’s costliest division. But OPD routinely exceeds its additional time price range by hundreds of thousands of {dollars} yearly.

Whereas the police union attributes additional time spending to understaffing, knowledge collected by a union representing civilian workers within the metropolis reveals a unique sample. From 2011 to 2024, OPD workers elevated by nearly 9%. Throughout the identical interval, additional time bills elevated by nearly 200%.

And historic knowledge means that growing police staffing has not diminished additional time spending.