D.C. police have spent nearly 60 percent of the $8 million approved by the D.C. Council to pay for overtime costs the first month of the District’s crime emergency.
So far, police have used $4.7 million of the overtime money to put more police on the streets, police spokesman Kevin Morison said. He said he didn’t know how many extra hours the 3,800-member police force worked during the month.
D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey declared the crime emergency July 11 after the city suffered a string of murders and a spike in crime. Under the emergency, police officers are required to work six days a week. The D.C. Council last month approved $8 million to cover the costs.
Violent crime has decreased 1 percent between during the emergency, according to D.C. police statistics released Tuesday. Property crimes were down 6.9 percent. Police said last week that the emergency could go on indefinitely, and Morison said the department planned to spend all the money.
He would not say whether the department would end the overtime work once the money runs out.
The District has been trying to stem the rising costs of overtime. Though police cut the amount of overtime from 900,000 hours in 2000 to 600,000 hours in 2005, the District is spendingmore on overtime than ever before because of the increase in police salaries.
In 2000, the D.C. police department spent $20 million in overtime. Last year, it spent more than $30 million in overtime, 15.4 percent greater than the previous year.
