New reports suggest Oakland PD overtime has cost city $236 million since 2008

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- Some of Oakland's unions are saying the city can't fix its budget issues if it can't fix overtime spending by the Oakland Police Department.

"It impacts the city's ability to deliver other critical things that our city needs, such as libraries, parks, summer food programs," said Julian Ware, vice president of IFPTE Local 21.

It is one of three unions that published a new report titled: "Smarter Public Safety: A Road Map For Oakland." It raises red flags about overtime spending by the police department.

"Over the last year, it's almost been half a million hours of overtime that's been run by the police department," Ware said. "It is a little alarming, because that's about 150,000 to 170,000 more than what we were seeing pre-pandemic."

MORE: Proposed Oakland budget would fund 6 police academy classes in 2 years

The report claims that overspending by the police department has cost Oakland $236 million in lost reserve balances since 2008. Using data from the city, the report says the overtime budget was $15 million in the 2019-2020 fiscal year, and it ballooned up to $55 million in this current fiscal year, which ends in June.

"The only reason we are calling this out is other safety departments aren't having these same challenges. The fire department doesn't have this problem with overtime spending. Other cities in the Bay Area aren't having this problem," Ware said.

The report claims this "long-standing pattern" has prevented the city from building up surplus revenues. And, that "downgrades from credit ratings agencies suggest that the city will need to demonstrate an ability to manage overspending in public safety in order to avoid further credit downgrades."

One of the report's main findings is that police overtime hours did not decrease when officer staffing levels increased, or even as crime rates declined. Sergeant Huy Nguyen, president of the police officers' union, said it's an issue of staffing.

MORE: Public safety key to reviving Oakland's economy, chamber of commerce report says

"We are not an agency that will come back and take care of a robbery a month from now," Nguyen said.

Nguyen said police work is unpredictable and that officers must work until an assignment is complete. He pointed to another recent report that said Oakland needs 877 officers, compared to the 669 currently staffed. He said with fewer officers, there is no choice but for cops to work overtime.

"This past weekend, Cinco de Mayo, is a perfect example. We forced our officers we held over our swing shift officers longer. And we forced our night shift officers to come in earlier," Nguyen said.

Oakland's current budget proposal budgets for six new academies over the next two years - bringing in about 60 new officers each year. But Nguyen argues that will have little impact on a department that also loses about 60 officers each year.