Baltimore County lawmakers approved more than $500,000 to fund increased overtime costs for police, who attributed the need for overtime to a spike in robberies and burglaries.
Police officials said increased overtime directly correlates to recent increases in arrests. Robberies dropped from a 21.2 percent increase to a 13.6 percent increase from 2005 to 2006, and burglaries dropped from a 39.4 percent increase to a less than 1 percent increase during the same period, according to county records.
“Overtime is used to put officers out there on the streets and detectives tracking down robbers,” police spokesman Bill Toohey said. “When you?ve got a hot lead on a robber, you can?t go home at five o?clock.”
Toohey said the request for additional funding is rare for the department of nearly 2,000 sworn officers. The department, which operates on a $94 million budget, spent about $1 million on overtime last year.
The spike in robberies and burglaries, which officials attributed to an increase in gang activity, began late last year. Toohey said officers put a dent in the rise during holiday deployment, when detectives are concentrated in places known to be robbery targets. Each of the county?s 12 precincts have developed their own specific plans to combat the problem.
Cole Weston, president of the county?s police union, said a shortage of patrol officers is contributing to the problem ? exacerbating practicalities such as lengthy paperwork that must be completed after an arrest that may have occurred in the sixth hour of an eight-hour shift.
“They probably set unrealistic benchmarks, especially with overtime, from the beginning,” Weston said. “No one is sitting around inappropriately earning overtime. I?m confident of that.”
The additional funds will come from the county?s $122 million unreserved and undesignated general fund, according to documents provided to the County Council.
