San Francisco Board of Supervisors passes police overtime pay audit | California

(The Center Square) – There were 393 people employed by the city of San Francisco’s police department that made $100,000 or more in overtime in 2022, according to city records.

This includes a police sergeant who was paid $531,635 last year, including $314,976 in overtime pay. Another police sergeant made $296,174 in overtime and made $454,015 in 2022.

This week, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a motion to audit the use of overtime pay by the city’s police department. 

The audit would review Fiscal Years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. 

San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved $25 million in funding for police overtime pay in March with a 9-2 vote and the support of Mayor London Breed. The legislation also allowed academy classes to begin and lifted a hiring freeze allowing for police ambassadors, or retired police officers, to be deployed. 

“Public safety is the number one issue I hear about from residents and small businesses every day,” Breed said in a press release. “These measures address immediate, on-the-ground needs in our neighborhoods, by ensuring that our police officers are able to respond to calls for service and address major safety needs, while also keeping ambassadors on our streets to make them more welcoming and safer.” 

Public safety spending in San Francisco has seen a substantial bump. The city spent $1.5 billion on public protection expenditures, which includes fire and police, in 2022, up from $1.38 billion in 2019, according to the city’s financial reports. 

Cities across the country have grappled with the costs of overtime pay for police departments, including Seattle where 28% of the department’s budget is spent on overtime pay and New York where overtime costs are projected to hit $740 million by the end of 2023.