Police Overtime Pay Skyrocketing Amid Staffing Shortages

Due to acute staffing shortages, San Francisco Deputy Sheriff Barry Bloom has worked an average of 95 hours per week since 2016, often exceeding 100 hours per week in recent fiscal years, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. While Bloom earned $123,790 in base pay in 2022, his total income reached $530,935 with overtime.

Since 2016, Bloom, a public safety monitor at San Francisco City Hall, has accrued $2.2 million in overtime pay, making him the highest overtime earner among city employees.

The San Francisco sheriff department is short 176 sworn full-time positions, 41 non-sworn positions, and 24 cadets, officials told The Chronicle. In response, the sheriff’s office is “aggressively hiring” to fill the staffing shortage that has been persisting since the onset of the pandemic.

Bloom’s colleagues have also earned substantial overtime pay due to persistent staff shortages in the sheriff’s office. While all employees are required to work at least two overtime shifts per week, some go beyond that, earning up to four times their base salaries.

After, Bloom, the second and third highest earners in his department have also raked in millions over the past seven years, with deputy sheriff Kristian DeJesus making $1.9 million since 2016, and senior deputy sheriff Michael Borovina Jr. making $1.8 million.

Still, there are consequences to officers being overworked, per the Sheriffs’ Association.

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“We have periods where deputy sheriffs get tired of all the forced overtime, and they look for jobs elsewhere because it’s just too much,” Ken Lomba, president of the San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association, told The Chronicle.

“We’re just one emergency away from a lawsuit,” he added.

Meanwhile, it’s not just the Bay Area that’s grappling with shrinking headcounts.

Police departments across the country have been struggling with severe staffing shortages, scrambling to fill roles from patrol officers to 911 operators, CNN reported in July 2022, noting that agencies in cities like Atlanta, Kansas City, and Dallas are short hundreds of officers.

According to the Police Executive Research Forum, the number of officer resignations was 47% in 2022 as compared to pre-pandemic levels of 2019. Furthermore, the number of sworn officers on staff was 0.9% lower in January than the same period in 2022, and down 4.8% compared to January 2020.