Offering hope
Lt. Albert Bonner helps provide 24hour security to Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, and last year Bonner earned more overtime money than any other employee in the Memphis Police Department: about $110,000.
Another policeman providing security to the mayor, Officer Charles Cannon, earned overtime of about $98,000. It was the the third-highest overtime payment in the Memphis Police Department in 2017, according to a database released by the city in response to a public records request.
The city has long provided some police protection to mayors. But the city stepped up Mayor Strickland’s protection after a 2016 incident in which protesters came to the mayor’s house, tramped around on his lawn and appeared to look in his windows.
Overtime payments to Bonner and Cannon surged.
The $110,000 that Bonner earned in 2017 was twice the overtime amount of about $55,000 he earned the previous year, according to the database. Cannon’s overtime likewise nearly doubled between 2016 and 2017.
Bonner and Cannon are the primary officers on the mayor’s security detail, but other officers also assist, said Police Director Michael Rallings.
A key protester involved in the lawn incident, Keedran Franklin, says he and his group pose no threat to the mayor, and that the extra security is pointless. “It’s a waste of time. Waste of funding,” Franklin said.
The mayor said the heavy cost of his security detail is regrettable, but necessary.
“It’s sad that we have to spend taxpayer dollars and use limited MPD resources like this,” Strickland said in a statement released by his office. “But when it comes to the safety of my family, including two children, I defer to Director Rallings’ advice. It is public knowledge that I’ve had trespassers at my home.”
“I did not always have an officer at my house, but that changed after the trespassing incident. Overtime for these officers is well earned. The security provided is necessary and justified.“
Bonner’s overtime pay came on top of his base salary of about $62,000. Combined with about $8,000 in additional payments, his paychecks totaled more than $180,000 in 2017, according to records. (Bonner is not related to Floyd Bonner, the high-ranking Shelby County Sheriff’s official.)
Cannon had a base salary last year of about $55,000, plus overtime payments of about $98,000 and other payments of just under $4,000, bringing his total paychecks to about $157,000. The high overtime payments to the