Suburban police overtime pay cost taxpayers an extra $31 million

It took an extra $31 million to cover all the police department overtime last year in 77 suburbs.

For many departments, overtime costs increased from the previous year. But what alarms some budget hawks is that departmental salaries increased, too.

“While it is generally cheaper to pay overtime to your employees than to hire new employees and then have all the associated costs including benefits, it's anticipated that the overtime would help keep salary costs down,” said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, a government finance research organization.

A Daily Herald analysis of annual budgets and audits from the 77 suburbs in six counties showed overtime costs equaled 8 percent of the more than $387 million in regular wages paid by those police departments.

In Round Lake Park, overtime equaled 21.8 percent of the department's regular wages last year. Overtime in 11 suburbs equaled more than 10 percent of those departments' regular wages, municipal records show.

Police department overtime costs in Addison amounted to $879,859 last year, which supplemented the department's salaries by an additional 13.4 percent. That's down from the extra 15.1 percent department employees made the previous year in overtime.

“I've asked the department to look at strategies to reduce the number and one of the things we're looking at is going to 12-hour shifts, and we think that could mean some overtime reduction,” Addison Village Manager Joseph Block said. “We've been emphasizing that it's something that's got to be reduced.”

Block said when officers arrest someone at the end of their shifts, that automatically means overtime costs. By going to 12-hour shifts and having an overlap of duty time, officers could come off the street before their shifts end to do paperwork and other tasks that might normally add overtime costs.

The analysis also showed the vast majority of the overtime was paid to sworn police officers, but administrative staff members also received additional wages.

“Our overtime has been cut by 90 percent this year,” Round Lake Park Police Chief George Filenko said. “The reason it was so high last year was because we were down four officers and we're a small department.”

Overtime costs at municipal police departments have increased since 2008 and the start of the Great Recession. Most departments were not allowed to fill vacancies and open positions were cut from budgets, so overtime opportunities became greater to maintain the status quo.

But now municipal leaders are taking a closer look at the additional costs.

“It's always appropriate to monitor overtime expenses to see when you might be hitting that crossover point when having additional full-time staff would be less expensive than overtime,” said Lombard Village Manager Scott Niehaus. “However, you do need to look at the cause of overtime. If it's required to meet minimum staffing levels, that tells a direct story, but if the overtime is created by significant or special events, I think that's a separate issue.”

Lombard's overtime costs were below the suburban average in its two most recently completed fiscal years, but the village saw increases both in overtime and regular salaries during that time, according to the village's financial records.

Niehaus said much of the growth in overtime costs in Lombard was related to special events where organizers picked up the tab for the additional police coverage. However, those reimbursements are generally no more than 10 percent to 15 percent of a department's overtime costs, according to municipal financial documents.

Although police can't use overtime to boost their pension payments, most police union contracts mandate that senior officers get first pick of overtime assignments, which drives up costs to taxpayers because those officers' salaries are higher.

For example, a longtime police sergeant in Bensenville whose 2012 salary was $89,594 made an additional $47,360 that year in overtime. That's 53 percent above the salary.

“There's no blanket rule for how much overtime is excessive,” Msall said. “But it should be part of the overall budget and it should be understood why it's a necessary cost.”

Most municipal budgets show only the previous year's overtime costs rather than multiple years', and most municipal audits don't show the figure at all. Most municipalities don't budget enough for police department overtime costs. According to the analysis, rarely do departments come in under budget on overtime costs.

In 2013, Streamwood budgeted $557,085 for police department overtime costs. Village taxpayers actually paid $587,891, which equaled 10.6 percent of the department's salaries. Despite the unanticipated 6 percent increase in overtime costs, village officials budgeted even less in 2014. Village Manager Gary O'Rourke blamed the increased on back pay requirements of a new union contract.

“It may appear out of the average for similar communities, but we're always conscious of cost and trying to keep things low,” O'Rourke said. “Anytime you're operating in a department that deals with unforeseen events and emergencies there's always potential for overtime.”

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Where police are getting overtime

These suburban police departments paid overtime equal to 10 percent or more of their salary costs in the most recently audited fiscal year.

Round Lake Park: $825,064 in salaries, $179,676 in overtime, overtime equals 21.8% of salaries.

Barrington: $1,944,252, $289,138 OT, 14.9%

Island Lake: $1,178,475, $169,797 OT, 14.4%

Addison: $6,551,592, $879,859 OT, 13.4%

Naperville: $22,026,686, $2,790,267 OT, 12.7%

Aurora: $34,720,060, $4,318,615 OT, 12.4%

Sugar Grove: $1,019,974, $122,107 OT, 12%

Roselle: $3,096,020, $357,565 OT, 11.5%

Villa Park: $3,686,986, $408,890 OT, 11.1%

Streamwood: $5,542,859, $587,891 OT, 10.6%

Wauconda: $2,302,491, $231,707 OT, 10.1%