HAMPTON ROADS, Va. - Millions of your tax dollars are spent paying overtime in cities across the region and the shortage of police officers is putting a strain on the system.
It’s no secret that the Norfolk Police Department desperately needs more officers. They told News 3 in late September there are about 252 vacancies.
“The vacancies create all kinds of problems, particularly with officer morale,” said WTKR law enforcement analyst and former Norfolk police Chief Larry Boone.
He said police vacancies cause response times to suffer and staff to work overtime.
“The city realizes that we are in dire straits, and they’ve implemented some things such as college tuition, there was a conversation about take-home vehicles, I think recently they just elevated everyone from corporal to sergeant. That’s an instant fix of morale,” said Boone.
Boone said with a lot of overtime, there’s a price to pay.
“They get worn out and once they start getting worn out something is going to be impacted,” said Boone.
Cities across the region tell News 3 they’re working to fill vacancies within their various departments.
Robin McCormick is the city of Hampton spokesperson.
“If they were 100 percent staffed, they wouldn't need much overtime,” said McCormick, “They would probably still need some here and there, but it would not be nearly what it has been.”
So how much overtime is being paid out in each city?
News 3 sent a FOIA request to all cities inquiring about the amount of overtime paid out in 2021. Below is the overall OT, police OT and fire OT per city.
Virginia Beach
Total Overtime $39,194,296
Police OT $8,142,072
Fire OT $6,806,218
Norfolk
Total Overtime $11,820,212
Police OT $4,643,014
Fire OT $3,132,789
Newport News
Total Overtime $9,785,090
Police OT $3,402,180
Fire OT $3,483,873
Chesapeake
Total Overtime $8,990,178
Police OT $3,256,206
Fire OT $2,271,384
Suffolk
Total Overtime $8,248,297
Police OT $2,016,222
Fire OT $4,971,914
Hampton
Total Overtime $7,954,297
Police OT $2,395,269
Fire OT $2,712,761
Portsmouth
Total Overtime $4,259,610
Police OT $1,977,678
Fire OT $1,078,554
McCormick said public safety is a top priority and demands overtime in certain situations.
“They can't clock out necessarily at the end of their shift. If they're in the middle of investigating something or interviewing someone they've got to keep going, so there's always going to be a certain amount of overtime associated with those departments,” she said.
Each city handles OT differently and most cities told News 3 COVID put a strain on the system. In Hampton, money for overtime comes from the general salaries budget.
“Here's allocated monies for salaries, and when you have vacancies, that salary money is used largely for overtime, so it's, generally speaking, within a part of the budget,” said McCormick.
Several cities pointed out that if the money wasn’t spent on OT, then city council would reallocate it towards needed services.
The city of Hampton says people retiring, vacancies, and the national labor shortage impacts the money needed for OT.
“It's a delicate balance, and it's a little hard to predict,” said McCormick.
But some people are making a lot more in overtime than others.
Our investigation revealed that in 2021, a Norfolk operations officer clocked in 2,391 hours of OT making an additional $56,000 in OT on top of their base pay of $33,000 a year.
Another police officer clocked in 1,787 hours of overtime adding $81,000 dollars to his base pay of about $65,000 a year.
But these are two extreme cases.
Boone said as cities continue to deal with shortages for police officers and other first responders more money will be spent on overtime.
“When there are vacancies, they’re going to be more overtime because there’s going to be so many demands that you have to address and the only way to do it unfortunately is to allow the officers to work overtime,” said Boone.
News 3 asked Boone if there is anything city leaders can do better when looking at these kinds of issues?
“When it comes down to it the biggest thing that the city can do is ensure that their police department is financially healthy and just say, ‘we care about you’. I don’t think they say that enough and that would go a long way we care about you.
QUESTIONS ABOUT OVERTIME FROM EACH CITY
Chesapeake Response:
1.Why has there been a continual increase in the amount of overtime paid over the years?
Growth of the City, increases in compensation, the changing face of public safety, and staff turnover all play a part in the increases in overtime.
2.What would the money be used for if it did not go to overtime? What budget does it come out of?
Overtime, as with regular compensation, comes out of the City's Operating Budget. Any funds not utilized for overtime would be reprogrammed/redirected by City Council towards other needs, services, programs, etc.
The Chesapeake Police Department’s overtime needs are impacted by the following:
· Off-duty court appearances
· Staffing to provide security for patients with Emergency Custody Orders at Chesapeake Regional Healthcare
· Special assignments and callouts of specialty units (such as SWAT and the Accident Reconstruction Team). These are collateral assignments that require overtime so as to not pull employees away from their normal work schedules, which would further impact service delivery.
· The Violent Incident Response Team (V.I.R.T.), made up of detectives and forensic technicians, responds to homicide scenes immediately to gather critical evidence, a method that increases the odds of solving the crime.
· Opioid overdoses have increased which often involves response from on-call Vice and Narcotics personnel.
· Vacancies
In the Chesapeake Fire Department, overtime needs are impacted by the following:
· Fire Academy (recruits receive a salary but are not serving in the field)
· Education (for example, members who are in school to become paramedics)
· Long-term sick leave
· General wage increases/adjustments (when employees receive higher pay, their overtime rates increase proportionately)
· Vacancies
Virginia Beach Response: Does the city have any comment about the amount of money paid in overtime?
Here are three factors to consider for this story:
Size of our city: VB is the largest city in the Commonwealth and the region, so the overall size of our workforce supports our population. Overtime is used to ensure we provide services to residents when there maybe staffing shortages or in instances where we need to enhance services (see example I've provided).
Vacancies: We've all been navigating the historic labor shortage the nation is experiencing, even though Virginia Beach has the lowest overall vacancy rate compared to our neighboring cities.
Hourly rate factor: Virginia Beach City employee wages have historically been higher than other Hampton Roads localities. Since overtime is paid out based on the employee’s hourly rate, that is certainly one contributing factor.
Besides fire and police departments who else is getting the majority of the overtime in the City of Virginia Beach?
A good example I can give you is from fiscal year 2020-21 during the pandemic. The entire City workforce mobilized to stand up a mass vaccination clinic at the Convention Center. The City, through close coordination with the Health Department, relied on qualified medical staff (Emergency Medical Services, Fire, Human Services, etc.) to administer the vaccine. Much of the workforce worked their normal schedules and then worked weekends or outside of their normal schedules to keep up with the demands of the mass vaccination clinic.
Why has there been a continual increase in the amount of overtime paid over the years?
Overtime pay out is determined by employee hourly pay. As pay increases occur over the course of time, there is a corresponding increase in overtime payout.
What budget does it come out of?
Most of the overtime occurs in departments primarily supported by the City’s General Fund and are supported through revenue streams such as real estate, personal property, general sales, etc., but there are other funds such as Waste Management and Public Utilities that also provide overtime pay. Those other funds are supported through fees for services.
What would the money be used for if it did not go to overtime?
If overtime funds were not used and could legally be reallocated (some funds are allocated under FLSA legal requirements), the City Council would vote on how to reallocate those funds.
Newport News Response
Q: Does the city have any comment about the amount of money paid in overtime??
A: See responses below.
Q: Why has there been a continual increase in the amount of overtime paid over the years?
A: The numbers provided to you back in May (attached) do not show a continual increase in overtime paid over the years here in Newport News. But beyond that, there are a number of reasons why overtime costs fluctuate from year to year. The city provides employees annual salary increases most years, and salary increases drive increases in overtime costs as overtime pay is based on the employee's regular salary. Additionally, the city continues to have vacancies in these, and other, departments. Public safety positions are particularly hard to fill both locally and nationally, and a higher number of vacancies leads to higher overtime costs just to cover the base level of staffing needed. Furthermore, while overtime costs are budgeted, there are events and circumstances that are unique and oftentimes unexpected each year - weather events, Presidential/dignitary visits, other extreme operational events, etc. - that we must respond to and that make year-to-year comparisons difficult.
Q: What would the money be used for if it did not go to overtime? What budget does it come out of?
A: The city develops an operating budget every year that includes funding in departmental budgets for overtime based on historical costs, operational needs and any anticipated increases in overtime hours. Overtime is an inherent cost, so it's difficult to look back over the years and say what the money would have been spent on if there were no overtime costs. In the budgeting process, there aren't discussions about whether to fund overtime or to fund something else instead. In addition, the actual overtime expenses were higher than the budgeted amounts in those years, so in practice, the actual payment of the overtime came from aggregate savings from the rest of the General Fund, including savings from vacancies.
NORFOLK RESPONSE:
Police and Fire are scheduled around-the-clock; they provide essential public safety services which cannot be shut down because a person is unavailable to fill a given shift.
Overtime is a tool used to ensure coverage for those essential services the city is obligated to provide all day, every day.
Some overtime is taken voluntarily; some is mandatory based on a work group’s needs.
Some overtime is built into schedules, for example, court pay for police officers who must appear for legal proceedings at times outside of their normal work schedules.
I’ll also note city salaries were recently increased as part of a concerted effort to make Norfolk more competitive in the regional job market; when base salaries go up, overtime rates will increase, too.
More than anything, the date range you cited was at the height of the pandemic. Police and fire interact with the public, face-to-face and in some instances, physical contact comes with the job. These men and women did not have the option of working from home or closing their offices while COVID-19 was at its peak, nor could they simply social distance from someone in need of their assistance. Precautions were taken, but their roles unquestionably involved public interaction at a time when many avoided such contact however, they could. You’re also looking at a period when unprecedented services were added, such as fire fighters working in regional vaccination clinics in early 2021, on top of their normal duties at the firehouse. The White House mobilized military resources to combat COVID-19, and city resources played a role in those efforts too – even while short-staffed.
Likewise, if someone became ill, tested positive or was even noted of possible exposure, their availability to work could suddenly be taken offline – meaning someone else would have had to be called in to cover a shift, because again, police and fire service demands never wane. Overtime was/still is a tool that city management could use to ensure vital services remained available to the community.
These funds come from a department’s salary budget, but for overtime, the monies would otherwise go toward addressing vacancies. Obviously, those men and women need and want some time off, so overtime can’t be overused or else it creates other concerns. The preference would be to hire more police officers, for example, and reduce overtime spending by spreading shifts across more individuals rather than giving fewer individuals more hours. Recruitment efforts are ongoing, but obviously such things take time.
The city’s situation with law enforcement vacancies is well-documented, and overtime is a management lever that is used whenever an organization lacks a full complement of staffing to otherwise cover each shift. Police and fire both run around the clock, and services related to COVID-19 have also led to increased overtime spending in recent years.
Keep in mind the date range in question also includes the height of the pandemic, so it’s reasonable to conclude some officers and firefighters would have been unable to work their assigned schedules due to positive tests, which would in turn require paying someone else overtime to ensure coverage. It’s all fairly straightforward.
PORTSMOUTH RESPONSE:
PPD:
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and as a result of a staffing shortage, the Police Department has used a combination of overtime for officers, as well as redirecting some of our specialty assignments personnel (street crimes and traffic unit) to cover some of our more critical functions, particularly as it relates to patrol and the answering of calls for service. This was necessary for the adequate coverage of the city as well as for the safety of the officers and the community. Additionally, the use of overtime allowed officers to follow the CDC guidelines to quarantine while recovering from the COVID-19 virus. As the Interim Chief of Police, I am committed to ensuring the safety of the City of Portsmouth, the community and officers I serve.
PFRES
The pandemic essentially halted the workforce globally, and everyone is challenged with recovering from this unprecedented event. The fact that we are still in a pandemic impacts staffing and overtime. In addition to the pandemic, there are expected employee separations due to retirements. The pandemic and retirements are just a few factors that directly impact overtime.
SUFFOLK RESPONSE:
Why has there been a continual increase in the amount of overtime paid over the years?
As first responders, SPF and SF&R are on the front line and have not been immune to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID exposure, and the associated protocols, have caused staffing shortages that have resulted in the need for increased overtime by staff.
As well, another factor to consider is the acquisition of volunteer fire departments by the City of Suffolk, the most recent stations acquired being Chuckatuck and Driver. Having to hire additional staff for these new positions during a nation-wide labor shortage has been a challenge and has also resulted in the need for overtime hours in order to provide the necessary coverage at all stations.
What would the money be used for if it did not go to overtime? What budget does it come out of?
It’s worth noting that the City does budget for overtime and vacancy savings are also reallocated for overtime pay as well. SPD and SF&R and funded through the City’s General Fund. In the event that designated/allocated funds are not used for overtime, the funds would remain in the General Fund to be used to address the various needs of the City.
The City has ramped up its recruit efforts to address staffing shortages. This is evidenced by the newly implemented competitive pay scale system and hiring incentives for our first responders and other City positions. In fact, the City of Suffolk was one of the first localities in the region to offer starting wages of $15/hr in an effort to remain competitive among Hampton Roads municipalities. We have also implemented hiring events such as job fairs and open houses, including the SPD Open House this weekend.
HAMPTON RESPONSE:
There are some factors that affect police and fire/EMS staff that the rest of us don’t face:
You can’t just leave when your shift is over. If you are at a crime scene or providing live-saving care to someone, you stay on the job. That has always been and will always be a function of those roles, and some amount of overtime will be required.
There will always be emergencies and the need to call in or hold over additional people. Snowstorms, hurricanes, flooding, and other emergency situations require more people that otherwise would be working that shift.
We have had a higher use of sick days over the past several years — much due to COVID, as well as other illnesses. In the early days of COVID, many healthy staff had to stay home quarantined, even though they did not have COVID but had been exposed.
We have seen an increase in fire and police employees using FMLA, or Family Medical Leave Act. That’s fair and a guaranteed right, but it pulls people out of the daily staffing.
These staffs also picked up extra tasks during COVID, including monitoring employee cases and return to work dates.
All EMS calls took longer during COVID, due to the need to do extra cleaning after each call.
These are tough, physical jobs, and many people are eligible to retire early. That increases turnover and the numbers of positions to be filled.
Both require a good bit of training. We provide that, but new hires aren’t immediately eligible to handle full duties.
Due to the physicality of the jobs, people can get injured and be out with those injuries or be assigned to lighter duty tasks, which means someone else has to fill in on the front line.
We need a certain number of front-line staff on duty at all times. We can’t just go “light” like staff in other departments can at times.
Even fully trained staff must attend regular trainings to maintain skills or update certifications.
We are able to “over hire,” or hire additional trainees to fill vacancies likely to occur, but we don’t know how many that will be, or when people will retire or leave.
There is a national shortage of qualified applicants for police and fire/EMS staff.
We are combatting that with:
An aggressive recruitment effort, including advertising in non-traditional places, placing banners in various city locations, videos, etc.
We have partnerships with high schools (in Hampton’s Academy model) to encourage young people to understand fire, EMS and policing and recruit them for training academies. Students who are interested in being 911 operators can get certification and a large portion of their training in high school.
We have expanded the space for our police training academy, allowing us to train three groups per year instead of two.
We have seen a tremendous growth in EMS calls. Some may be due to COVID, but many are due to an aging population. To reduce the need for overtime, this year the Fire Chief and City Manager authorized and created a special new team of EMS staff who will work at peak times and across some traditional station boundaries to pick up additional cases.
Generally, the money for overtime comes from the general salaries budget. When there are vacancies, we aren’t paying anyone and can reallocated those funds to pay for overtime.
