Dallas city leaders will learn more on Tuesday morning about a serious problem impacting the city's budget: overtime pay for police and firefighters.
Last year, both departments exceeded their overtime budgets by millions of dollars simply because there were not enough staff to cover the work that needed to be done.
According to the Dallas Morning News, overtime is so crucial that the highest-paid Dallas police officer wasn't the chief last year. It was a patrol sergeant who brought home more than $300,000, more than half of that from overtime work.
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In 2023, the city spent $11 million more than budgeted for police overtime and an extra $13 million for the fire department. Both departments blame the issue on fewer workers and a steady demand for services.
Click here to read more from the Dallas Morning News.
Dallas police will brief the City Council on Tuesday on the reality of overtime this fiscal year and their battle plan for solutions.
Priority 1 calls have increased 26% since 2018, but the number of sworn officers only went up by 2%. The Dallas Police Department is projecting $55 million in overtime this fiscal year, and to cover that, the city needs to hire an additional 451 officers.
The police department listed several overtime solutions in its council report, including:
- Evaluating a pilot program for recruiting incentives
- Exploring other options to boost retention
- Making some adjustments to shifts and changing some policies within the timecard procedures
- Looking at having civilian workers within the city to help with the administrative workload for sworn officers.
Click here to view the full presentation by DPD.
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Dallas isn't alone in this overtime dilemma. Chicago, San Diego, and Minneapolis have seen similar overtime surges. The Dallas Fire-Rescue Department is also addressing its overtime issues.
They're concerned because 20% of the firefighters on staff are eligible to retire, and 34% have five years of experience or less. They want to recruit 60 more firefighters.
The department has already reduced the number of college hours required to become one.
Dallas Fire-Rescue is also hoping to increase mental health and wellness programs to retain staff, develop more internal leaders in the department, and more easily allow people to transfer within the department.
All of this will also be up for discussion Tuesday at Dallas City Hall.
