Under questioning from the Baltimore City Council during a budget hearing Thursday, Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm admitted the department was investigating overtime fraud.
“There were some abuses and there were some officers who allegedly abused [overtime]. Those cases are being investigated,” Hamm told the council. “Through the internal process, we did find abuse.”
In February, the department suspended six police officers for possible overtime fraud, pending an internal police investigation. One of those officers, Sgt. Darryl Massey, earned more than $69,000 in overtime in 2006 and is among the top-10 overtime earners for the entire department. (See examiner.com for a complete list of police salaries and a video of the hearing.)
Hamm did not elaborate on the number of officers under investigation or if any reimbursed the city.
The Examiner reported earlier this week that the department spent $37 million on overtime in 2006, exceeding the $8 million budget for the fiscal year, including paying out $104,423 in overtime pay to Detective Albert Marcus Sr. Counting his base pay, Marcus was the highest paid police officer. He took home a total of $167,421 ? more money than Hamm last year.
Overruns in overtime spending in 2007 also claimed nearly 50 percent of the $40 million budget surplus in 2007.
Despite criticism of chronic overspending, police told the council they had budgeted only $8.3 million for overtime in 2008, a number Councilman Ken Harris criticized.
“If you look at the history of this agency, being $20 [million] to $30 million over budget year after year, this [$8.3 million] is ridiculously low,” Harris said. “I just want us to be realistic.”
Not all members of the council wanted to rein in overtime spending.
“I don?t care how much overtime you need, take as much as you want,” Councilman James Kraft said. However, Kraft urged the department to be accurate. “I?d rather have you say you need $25 million now, then come back later and ask for more.”
In response to a question about overtime fraud, Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm says:
“At this time we have basically what we call a BudgetStat where we have the commanders come in and justify the overtime. That?s the control we have in place. We found in fact that there was some abuse. We found in fact that there were some officers who alleged abuse and those cases are currently being investigated for overpaid and whatever. So I can?t tell you how much in fact we found but in fact we did find and we are investigating those cases.”
How should the city handle abuse of overtime in the Police Department? Respond below in our comments.
