Yakima police saving you money by cutting back on overtime
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YAKIMA, Wash. -- Yakima spends $24 million of your taxpayer money every year on police to keep you safe. One challenge is trying to keep spending under control without sacrificing safety. KIMA learned overtime hasn't gone away, but it is better.
"Obviously, we rack up overtime because we are a 24-hour operation," said Police Captain Rod Light.
Capt. Light says Yakima police often follow a schedule set by burglars, gang members and killers. Not to mention, the job's not finished when officers leave a crime scene.
"An officer may have thirty minutes left of work, but now has three hours worth of paperwork left to do," explained Light.
After pulling the numbers, we learned the overtime adds up fast. Yakima police clocked nearly a million dollars of OT in 2012. While that seems like a lot, it's actually $200,000 less than two years ago.
"I think they have to police themselves to make sure the overtime is being well spent," said Yakima man, Dave Eastlick.
Captain Light says that's what they're doing. He says both management and street supervisors work together to be more efficient. They're paying more attention to staffing and meet weekly about the budget.
It's a trend YPD hopes to continue in 2013. A balancing act of saving you money and keeping you safe.
YPD says officers aren't the only employees racking up overtime. Clerks put in a lot of hours getting cases ready for court.
"Obviously, we rack up overtime because we are a 24-hour operation," said Police Captain Rod Light.
Capt. Light says Yakima police often follow a schedule set by burglars, gang members and killers. Not to mention, the job's not finished when officers leave a crime scene.
"An officer may have thirty minutes left of work, but now has three hours worth of paperwork left to do," explained Light.
After pulling the numbers, we learned the overtime adds up fast. Yakima police clocked nearly a million dollars of OT in 2012. While that seems like a lot, it's actually $200,000 less than two years ago.
"I think they have to police themselves to make sure the overtime is being well spent," said Yakima man, Dave Eastlick.
Captain Light says that's what they're doing. He says both management and street supervisors work together to be more efficient. They're paying more attention to staffing and meet weekly about the budget.
It's a trend YPD hopes to continue in 2013. A balancing act of saving you money and keeping you safe.
YPD says officers aren't the only employees racking up overtime. Clerks put in a lot of hours getting cases ready for court.
With all the new hires over the past 3 years I don't consider this a savings at all. How about a list of the top ten overtime earners and the amounts over the last 3 years, How many patrolman earn over $100,000 a year because of overtime?? Or lets all be happy without the facts.
Officers jobs are very different then most in the public sector, often when it is time to clock out and go home they are not able to. Doing so would put important information on hold until the next day or even after their days off that could be crucial in the department doing job.
Can you see it now, you are involved in a bank robbery and it is actively going on then you hear a whistle and all of a sudden all law enforcement stand up go back to their cars and go home!
Simply it is a necessity.
$988,127.00 Does anyone besides me realize just how much that affects law enforcement... Every 27 hours of overtime equals 40.5 hours of straight time...$21,178.00 is the beginning salary of a patrol officer (taken from Statetroopersalary.com) The overtime wasted is equal to the payroll of 46 beginning officers yearly salaries. I realize that in a business like law enforcement there are going to be those times when overtime can't be avoided, ie giving reports, last minute persuits, emergency situations, ect. ect. ect. but the equivalent of 46 patrolling officers?