Sheriff’s deputies racking up OT — nearly $1 billion in five years

This from reporter Dana Bartholomew at the Los Angeles Daily News:

Santa’s elves may toil long hours at toy time, but Los Angeles Sheriff’s deputies are piling up the overtime all year long.

Total deputy overtime has averaged $162 million a year since 2004, according to a county audit released over the weekend. Among the findings, 348 deputies worked 900 hours of overtime in one year – equal to six months of full-time work.

Furthermore, it said lawmen worked so many back-to-back shifts they risked being too weary to do the work.

“Employees who work significant amounts of overtime may not be physically/mentally capable of performing their jobs,” said Wendy Watanabe, Los Angeles County auditor-controller, in her 12-page report.

“In addition, we noted that non-emergency overtime is not always pre-approved, and management does not always monitor individual overtime worked/reported for compliance with the work schedule limitations.”

The audit, released Sunday by county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, highlights a Sheriff’s overtime budget run amuck, with deputies potentially reeling from the strain.

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One thought on “Sheriff’s deputies racking up OT — nearly $1 billion in five years

  1. I sure would hate to be the Deputy or Police Officer that refused to work O.T. when “requested” by a supervisor. The rank & file officer are not ‘shot-callers’ nor make up their own schedule. Much of the O.T. comes from court appearances before and after their work shift and their pay rate is set by the city council or County Board of Supervisor.
    Really hard to get people to work for free now days.

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