For emergency medical personnel, firefighters, and police officers in Austin, working overtime is a given. According to city payroll records, the three departments spent $84 million on overtime during the previous fiscal year.
However, after years of skyrocketing overtime compensation, Austin is reducing some of that expenditure. It is requesting that its police and fire departments reduce millions of dollars in overtime, and it is encouraging city employees to keep an eye on how much the city spends and where it may cut down.
How much does the city spend on overtime?
The Austin Police Department is by far the largest overtime spender. It makes sense. Austin’s big events, such as SXSW and ACL, are covered by police personnel. In addition, the department has been understaffed for almost ten years.
For the 2024 budget, APD had originally allocated about $25 million for overtime; nevertheless, they ended up spending almost twice as much.
Why are cuts needed?
Due to a $33 million budget deficit, City Council is requesting more funding from Austin residents through an election of the tax rate.
Additionally, departments are being asked to cut back on spending, including overtime.
According to Ryan Alter, a council member from District 5, the city’s overtime costs are frequently erratic.
He stated that we must comprehend the reason behind that. Why do we continue to experience more overtime than we anticipated? Staffing problems have contributed to some of it, but we ought to be able to anticipate and appropriately account for that.
Additionally, some public safety workers have padded their pay by working overtime.
Last year, for instance, 41 APD officers earned at least $100,000 in overtime. Their take-home earnings was close to $260,000 on average. Just three Austin firefighters worked six-figure overtime last year, for comparison.
Too much overtime can result in poor decision-making during police interactions and, eventually, burnout, according to Nelly Paulina Ramirez, chair of the city’s Public Safety Commission. She cites research from the National Institutes for Health and the Police Executive Research Forum.
She stated, “I don’t want to have to confront a police officer who is on their 56th hour of the week.” No one ought to have to. Someone who is eager to clock out for the week and is on their 35th hour is what I want.
What s the solution?
Hiring isn’t the only option for APD. Cities around the nation have had difficulty hiring police officers in recent years, despite the department’s announcement that it will concentrate more on recruitment.
According to Ramirez of the Public Safety Commission, the city must relieve APD of its burden. She maintained that police shouldn’t react to every traffic accident or mental health emergency. Civilians are capable of doing some of it. However, she acknowledged that would entail significant adjustments for a department that will also receive significant rises this year.
“I think we could eliminate a lot of overtime, if not all of our time, if we really lean in to our civilian staff,” she said.
In agreement, a recently published city-sponsored analysis of APD operations recommended that Austin hire extra civilian employees to relieve some of the strain on overburdened police.
Alter, a council member, is supporting a bill to do just that.
Some people will find it uncomfortable that we will need to do things a little differently, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do it, he added.
The Austin Police Department is reorganizing its organization to concentrate more on patrols and less on some specialized, overtime-heavy duties while reducing overtime by $9 million.
Alter is also urging city employees to keep an eye on Austin’s annual overtime expenditures.
Alter stated that we cannot allow overtime to just deplete the budget. A significant portion of our budget is already allocated to public safety agencies, but if we exceed our overtime expenses, it will have a significant effect on the remaining funds.
As part of the Austin Monitor’s reporting collaboration with KUT, this story was created.
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