CASHING IN AROUND THE CLOCK
Nine Hub cops paid for more than 24-hour days
A handful of Hub police officers managed to get paid for 24 or more hours in a single day 16 times in one year, thanks to a patchwork of details, overtime and in some cases, hours they didn’t actually work, a Herald analysis of department data found.
The mind-bending paydays — including one instance in which an officer was paid for 31 hours in one day — are allowed under Boston Police Department rules, which caps the daily hours an officer can work at 18.
But officers aren’t limited to the hours for which they’re ultimately paid, which can balloon under the department’s collectively bargained contracts.
For example, officers are paid a minimum amount of hours for a detail or to appear in court, even if they work a small fraction of the time.
They can also stack details and overtime shifts on days they are already on paid vacation, further padding a single day’s pay.
“It’s a system gone haywire when people can get paid for more than 24 hours in a single day,” said Mary Connaughton, the director of government transparency at the Pioneer Institute.
“People often wonder how officers can possibly earn more in OT than in regular pay,” Connaughton said. “With rules like these, it shouldn’t be a surprise.”
The Herald analyzed the time sheets of a half-dozen of the department’s top overtime earners from 2015, which the Pioneer Institute obtained through a public records request it made last fall but received back this month. The review found: • Nine times an officer was paid for more than 24 hours in one day. That included the 31-hour payday for an officer who, while on vacation, worked more than 15 hours of overtime, another six on a detail and was paid for two additional hours of a detail he didn’t work.
• Seven times an officer worked exactly 24 hours.
• Sixteen instances where officers worked 23-plus hours.
Lt. Michael McCarthy, a Boston police spokesman, said the rules allowing for the massive single-day payouts are “all pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement.” He also noted that details are paid by private contractors, not the city. And instances like the officer with the 31-hour payday— where he in fact worked more than 18 hours in one day — could fall under a public safety exception where a detail can be extended.
“There are negotiations that are long and thorough between the city of Boston and the respective unions,” McCarthy said. “The agreement they come to is determined to be fair by both sides.”
Efforts to reach officials at the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association or the Boston Police Detectives Benevolent Society were not successful yesterday.
But Sam Tyler, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, said the massive payouts raise questions not just about how the extra work is being managed, but also the toll it can take on officers.
“How fit are these officers that are working these kinds of hours when they’re on their regular tour of duty?” he asked.
It’s a concern that’s been raised by the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, including in its summer newsletter, where editor James W. Carnell wrote the department’s patrol force is “shortstaffed, overworked, tired and frustrated,” in part due to “mandatory, forced overtime shifts.”
But McCarthy defended the department’s handling and noted citizen complaints about officers are down in recent years, saying, “There is no indication that the workload is affecting the officers’ actions or behaviors.”