Overtime
Posted on April 5, 2016
The overtime/manpower shell game has been going on for years now, roughly averaging $100 million a year. Given this year’s shitty performance thus far and the forthcoming Summer Hunger Games, the dollar figure can only up and up and up.
“The Chicago Police Department spent a record $116.1 million on overtime in 2015 — up 17.2 percent from the previous year — to mask a manpower shortage that has mushroomed under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, with police retirements outpacing hiring by 975 officers.
“Overtime is totally out of control. Arrests are down. Stops are down. Crime is up. All we’re doing is paying people to do nothing,” said Ald. Anthony Beale (9th), former chairman of the City Council’s Police Committee.
“If we’re not getting the bang for the buck, we need to stop paying overtime and do the resources allocation I’ve been talking about for years” by reassigning officers to districts where crime is highest, Beale said.”
We’re already doling out generous pay and benefits to 50 part-time aldercreatures who do nothing and by nothing we mean ban stuff, raise taxes and pass along perk$ to their cronies. Maybe Rahm can take them off of desk duty and put them on patrol instead so we can get more bang for our buck.