During our review of police overtime expenditures, we identified several policies and practices which reduce the efficiency and cost effectiveness of the Police Department. These policies and practices, which are described in further detail below, include: (1) paying police officers ten hours of overtime when working special events on their regularly scheduled days off, regardless of the actual number of hours worked; (2) limiting the authority of commanding officers when changing a police officer"s schedule; (3) paying overtime to individuals at the rank of captain and above; and, (4) paying overtime wages on the same day or during the same week that a police officer takes leave.

Working Special Events on Regularly Scheduled Day Off

General Order Section 11.01 states that the Chief may suspend regularly scheduled days off for police officers. If required to work on their regularly scheduled day off, police officers are then entitled to receive overtime. In practice, police officers who are required to work on their days off for the purpose of policing a special event are often authorized to receive ten hours of pay at the overtime rate, regardless of the number of hours actually worked.

In order to determine the potential cost of this practice to the Department, we analyzed a random sample of police officer attendance and overtime records at the ten district stations for four pay periods in CY 1995. As a result of this review, we identified 285 canceled days off for which ten hours of EWW overtime pay were paid, regardless of the actual number of hours worked. On an annual basis, this pattern of usage would be equivalent to approximately 1,860 days per year, or 18,600 overtime hours, assuming the ten hour minimum overtime payment made by the Department.

However, the Department does not maintain sufficient detail on the actual number of hours worked by police officers when assigned to special events on their regularly scheduled day off. Accordingly, we could not determine the number of hours paid but not worked when compiling data from this sample.

According to Police Department personnel, in general, an officer is called in to work on his or her day off to police a special event only if that officer is needed for at least a few hours. Accordingly, assuming that police officers worked half of the overtime hours estimated based on our sample, this would mean that the Police Department paid $358,050 in excessive overtime expenditures for 9,300 overtime hours that were reported but not actually worked (9,300 hours x $38.50 per hour). If less than half of the 18,600 overtime hours were worked, the Police Department may have paid up to $716,100 in excessive overtime expenditures for overtime hours that were reported but not actually worked (18,600 hours x $38.50 per hour).

If either a maximum of six hours of overtime, or the number of overtime hours actually worked, whichever is greater, was paid for each canceled day off, the number of paid EWW overtime hours would have been reduced from 18,600 hours to 11,160 hours (six hours per day x 1,860 days), or a reduction of up to 7,440 hours of EWW overtime. At the average overtime rate of $38.50 per hour, this would generate savings of up to $286,440 in EWW overtime per year (7,440 hours x $38.50 per hour). It should be noted that the actual savings resulting from implementing this recommendation could be less, depending on the number of overtime hours actually worked on canceled days off.

Changing Schedules to Reduce the Payment of Overtime

The MOU currently states that an officer"s regular watch shall not be changed by more than three hours to avoid the payment of overtime when policing a special event. For example, if an officer whose regularly scheduled hours are from 6 AM to 4 PM is needed to police a special event occurring between 4 PM and 7 PM, that officer"s shift could be changed by three hours (to a 9 AM to 7 PM shift) in order to avoid the payment of special event overtime. In practice, the Department also applies this rule to other types of overtime, such as court overtime. Thus, an officer"s shift will not be changed more than three hours in order to avoid the payment of court overtime.

This practice limits the extent to which the Department can reassign on-duty personnel from their regular watch in order to staff a special event or to attend court while on-duty. Extending this limit from three hours to five hours would provide commanding officers with greater flexibility for assigning officers to cover special events and would reduce overtime expenditures. If, for example, court overtime requests could be reduced from the current average of three hours to two hours per request, court overtime hours could be reduced by an estimated 4,222 hours per year, for an annual savings of approximately $162,547 in court overtime expenditures.

Additionally, the Department could also realize savings in EWW overtime by implementing this recommendation. However, because data is not available on the extent to which EWW overtime is incurred because of this overtime policy, the amount of potential savings in EWW overtime expenditures cannot be determined at this time.

Overtime for Higher Ranked Sworn Officers

Under the General Order Manual, the Department"s senior management (i.e., sworn employees with the rank of captain, commander, deputy chief, assistant chief and chief) are currently entitled to receive overtime wages. In fact, the January 1996 Controller"s report on the City"s top overtime earners included 11 captains and two commanders on the list of employees who earned in excess of ten percent of their total wages in overtime, resulting in $274,371 in overtime expenditures during CY 1995 just for these 13 employees. Moreover, of these 13 employees, seven worked in excess of 16 percent of their regularly scheduled hours in overtime, resulting in individual overtime wages of up to $34,000 per year. Based on a report from the Controller"s Office, 5,441 overtime hours were incurred by high ranked sworn employees in FY 1995-96, resulting in annual overtime expenditures for these employees of $321,220.

As senior managers, these employees are not held to specific work schedules and should not be treated as hourly employees. Any overtime work required of such employees is already reflected in their high annual salaries. In other City departments, high level management or administrative positions (classified as "Z" employees by the Human Resources Department) are exempt from the payment of overtime wages. Moreover, in a survey of ten other California police departments [1] , the Budget Analyst found none of the police departments surveyed paid overtime to ranks above Captain and that only two of the ten police departments paid overtime to Captains. In addition, eliminating overtime for these high ranks would set an example for lower ranks and would increase scrutiny of overtime use by officers of lower rank.

The Budget Analyst recommends that SFPD and Human Resources work with the Police Officer"s Association to eliminate overtime pay for sworn members of the Police Department with the rank of captain and above. This would be more consistent with practices in other City departments and those in other police agencies, and would result in savings in overtime expenditures of $321,220 annually.

Policies Regarding Overtime Compensation

Overtime and Leave in the Same Week

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires the payment of overtime at 1.5 times the employee"s straight time rate of pay to all non-exempt employees (under the rank of lieutenant) for work done in excess of 40 hours of work per week. Our research of case law regarding overtime compensation indicates that any hours of leave for illness or vacation should not be included in computation of the number of hours worked, when determining overtime compensation for an individual employee. Additionally, FLSA case law defines a work week as a week during which work is performed, and hence overtime compensation cannot be recovered in a week during which an employee is on vacation and has performed no work for the employer.

According to the Employee Relations Division of the Human Resources Department, the FLSA establishes the minimum requirement which must be met by employers with regard to overtime compensation. Any provisions which exceed this minimum requirement are at the discretion of the City and are included in the Charter, MOUs, and/or in administrative policy manuals.

The Charter establishes the basic week of service for sworn employees at 40 hours and provides that, for service performed in excess of the basic week of service, the employee shall be compensated at the rate of time and one-half. Additionally, pursuant to General Order Manual Section 11.01, San Francisco police officers are entitled to overtime compensation for any work performed in excess of a normally scheduled work week (40 hours) or a normal watch (eight or ten hours per day). Thus, a police officer who is paid for 40 hours a week is paid at the overtime rate for any additional hours worked beyond his or her regularly scheduled hours for one day, even if he or she takes time off during that week and actually works less than 40 hours. For example, a patrol officer who takes a compensatory day off, thereby reducing his or her actual work time from 40 hours to 30 hours, is compensated at the overtime rate if he or she works an additional shift on another day during that same week.

In a random sample of attendance and overtime records for four pay periods during CY 1995 for 529 sworn employees of all ranks throughout the Police Department, the Budget Analyst identified 755 instances in which officers took authorized leave and received overtime wages during the same seven day period. These employees were paid an annualized estimate of $5,243,366 in overtime wages for an estimated 131,511 overtime hours worked. If the number of hours of leave had been deducted from the normal work week of 40 hours, these employees would have been paid at the overtime rate for only 36,711 of these 131,511 hours. The remaining 94,800 hours would have been paid at the straight time rate. If the Police Department had paid for these 94,800 hours at the straight time rate of pay, and for the remaining 36,711 hours at the overtime rate of pay, as is authorized by the FLSA, annualized expenditures would have been $3,981,991, or $1,261,375 less than the estimated expenditures of $5,243,366.

Furthermore, in the same sample, the Budget Analyst identified a number of instances when officers took authorized leave and accrued compensatory time off (in lieu of overtime wages) during the same seven day period. On an annualized basis, these employees accrued an estimated 35,189 compensatory hours at the rate of 1.5 times the number of overtime hours worked (23,459.1 hours). If the number of hours of leave had been deducted from the normal work week of 40 hours, these employees would have accrued only 27,341 hours of compensatory time off (15,695 hours at the straight time rate plus 11,646 hours at the rate of 1.5 times the 7,764 hours of actual overtime worked), or a reduction of 7,848 hours of compensatory time. This reduction in accrued compensatory time off would result in fewer leave days taken throughout the Police Department, and would be equivalent to the addition of nearly five sworn employees at no additional cost to the Department.

One option would be to amend General Order Section 11.01 to prohibit sworn employees from receiving overtime wages at the rate of 1.5 times the straight time rate of pay for extra hours worked beyond a regular shift in a seven day period during which authorized leave is taken. Thus, any extra hours worked during that seven day period would be compensated at the straight time rate. This could result in a savings in overtime expenditures of an estimated $1,261,375 per year.

According to the Employee Relations Division of the Department of Human Resources, the City is moving towards the objective of excluding hours of leave in the computation of number of hours worked, when determining overtime compensation for an individual employee. The Employee Relations Division advises that there are several existing MOUs which now include provisions that determine overtime compensation based on the number of hours actually worked.

Another option would be to extend the work week for sworn employees to an amount higher than 40 hours per week. According to the Employee Relations Division, the FLSA authorizes jurisdictions to expand the work week for public safety officers, who in many cases work an average of more than 40 hours per week. The Employee Relations Division advises that the City has thus far reached agreement with one labor organization representing probation officers to extend their work week to 43 hours per week. If the work week for sworn members of the Police Department were extended to 43 hours per week, this would provide an additional 318,524 hours of police services to the City, based on approximately 2,034 officers scheduled to work an additional 156.6 hours per year. Although it is likely that extending the work week for sworn employees would result in a reduction in overtime expenditures, the amount of such a reduction cannot be estimated at this time.

Overtime and Leave on the Same Day

While Section 11.01 of the General Order Manual prohibits an officer from receiving overtime wages during hours of paid sick leave, vacation leave, compensatory time off, floating holidays and disability leave, this does not necessarily prevent the practice of taking leave and receiving overtime wages on the same day. The Budget Analyst identified 102 instances at the district stations in which officers took authorized leave and received overtime wages on the same day. For example, one officer took two hours of compensatory time off during his regular shift, but then received overtime wages at the rate of 1.5 times the straight time rate of pay for four additional hours worked beyond his regular shift on that same day. Similarly, we identified many instances where officers took an entire day off and received overtime wages on the same day.

In some instances, this practice may have occurred because a night watch officer had a mandatory court appearance on a scheduled vacation day and thus incurred involuntary overtime. However, in many cases, the overtime was voluntary (such as EWW overtime). As such, officers could volunteer to work at a special event on a regularly scheduled working day, take that day off as a vacation day, and then receive overtime wages for working at that special event, even though the officer was originally scheduled to work on that day in the first place. Moreover, officers" schedules could be manipulated so that, knowing that a special event was going to take place on a scheduled work day, an officer could have that day changed to a scheduled day off, and then receive overtime wages for working on that day at the special event.

One reason why this practice may go unnoticed by management is that attendance and overtime records are recorded on separate documents, thereby making it difficult to identify instances when overtime use and authorized leave occur on the same day. Overtime use and absences should be recorded on the same document. Additionally, this practice should be ended by amending General Order Section 11.01 to prohibit officers from working voluntary overtime on days on which authorized leave is taken.

Conclusions

The Police Department has many policies and practices that result in a higher use of overtime than is necessary given current practices in other City departments, other jurisdictions, and Federal Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) provisions.

Police Officers who work on their regular days off to provide police coverage for special events are customarily paid ten hours of overtime, even if less than ten hours are worked.

Commanding officers are cannot change a police officer"s schedule more than three hours to staff a special event or to attend court while on-duty, increasing the probability that overtime will be paid.

Upper level managers are currently entitled to receive overtime wages for extra hours worked. In fact, 13 high ranked sworn employees individually earned up to $34,000 each in CY 1995.

Although not required by the Fair Labor Standards Act, officers are often paid overtime wages on the same day or in the same week during which they take leaves of absence.

Police Department management should meet and confer with the Police Officers Association (POA) to revise or eliminate the policies and practices identified above. If fully implemented, the recommended changes included in this section would result in significant overtime savings of up to $1,957,200 per year, and a reduction in the amount of compensatory time-off currently being earned by officers.

Recommendations

The Chief of Police should:

3.5.1 Amend General Order Manual Section 11.01 to limit the number of paid overtime hours on canceled days off to six hours, or the number of hours actually worked, whichever is greater.

3.5.2 Meet and confer with the Police Officers Association to extend the current three-hour limit for changing an officer"s shift to five hours.

3.5.3 Meet and confer with the Police Officers Association to exclude sworn members of the Police Department with the rank of captain, commander, deputy chief, assistant chief or chief of police from the payment of overtime.

3.5.4 Amend General Order Manual Section 11.01 to provide for the payment of overtime wages for any hours worked in excess of 40 hours of work per week. Any additional hours voluntarily worked beyond a regular shift on the same day or in the same week during which authorized leave is taken should be paid at the straight time rate. Alternatively, the Chief of Police should work with the Police Officers Association to negotiate an extension of the work week for sworn employees to an amount higher than 40 hours per week.

The Deputy Chief of Administration should:

3.5.5 Develop new forms which will allow personnel to record attendance and overtime data on the same document.

3.5.6 Direct that an enhancement to the SFPD"s Personnel Scheduling System be developed to track all changes made to police officers" schedules.

Costs and Benefits

There would be no cost to implement these recommendations.

Implementation of the above recommendations would produce the following savings in sworn overtime expenditures, depending on whether such recommendations are implemented independently or in conjunction with other recommendations, as follows:

Extending the current limit for changing an officer"s shift from three hours to five hours would provide commanding officers with greater flexibility to reassign officers from their regular shifts in order to cover special events or to attend court while on-duty.

Eliminating overtime for higher ranked sworn employees would set an example for lower ranks and would increase scrutiny of overtime usage for officers of lower rank.

A reduction in accrued compensatory time off by 7,848 hours per year would result in fewer absences throughout the Police Department, and would be equivalent to the addition of nearly five sworn employees at no additional cost to the Department.

Recording overtime usage and absences on the same document would make it easier to identify instances when overtime and authorized leave occur on the same day or in the same week.

Footnotes

1. The police agencies surveyed include Alameda, Fremont, Fresno, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Jose and Santa Rosa. Only San Jose and Oakland paid overtime to Captains and none paid overtime to ranks above Captain. The City of Long Beach has no Captain rank, and pays no overtime to the ranks of Commander and above. The survey addressed overtime payment and did not compare total compensation for these jurisdictions.