Name: Some Honolulu Police Officers Are Doubling Their Salaries With Overtime
Brand: civilbeat.org
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Some Honolulu Police Officers Are Doubling Their Salaries With Overtime

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In just the first nine months of 2020,“The overtime pay is astounding. The word that came to mind is bonkers,” said Honolulu Councilman Tommy Waters, who chairs the public safety committee. “An anonymous source sent Civil Beat a document showing overtime pay for HPD in 2017, 2018 and the first nine months of 2019. An HPD source who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation confirmed that the document was authentic.Separately, Civil Beat obtained a list of the top 30 earners among all city officials for the first nine months of 2020.Waters, who is expected to become the chair of the City Council in January, said it’s ironic that Ballard talks about the importance of transparency when her department won’t release comprehensive overtime data. He plans to ask the council’s new budget committee chair to take a close look at overtime expenditures.The chief told police commissioners on Wednesday that officers are angry with her because she ended the lucrative COVID-19 enforcement shifts.“It upset a lot of people because they no longer had all that extra money,” she said. “People need to learn to live within their means. Any time, when it comes to money, things turn nasty. As we all know, money is the root of all evil.”Ballard would not agree to an interview to discuss her department’s overtime costs. Messages left with the officers mentioned in this story were not returned on Friday with the exception of retired Cpl. Patrick Fo, who had no comment.It’s not yet clear how much overtime the department spent in 2020 using regular city funds.As of Dec. 14, HPD had 279 vacancies, or 13% of the 2,143 positions the city budget allows.“APolice Commissioner Doug Chin said that he will take a look at HPD’s overtime spending as one of three commissioners in charge of examining HPD’s budget and making recommendations.“These stories about HPD overtime are very serious, especially during the economic crisis that the city is facing,” he told Civil Beat.Ballard told police commissioners that the department is planning to cut back on overtime, but she didn’t say by how much.“We’re going to be restricting the amount of overtime they can work,” she said, and added that the department will use a computer system to prevent officers who have exceeded their limits from signing up for additional overtime shifts.Civil Beat shared its overtime data with Mayor-elect Rick Blangiardi’s campaign secretary Jennifer Armstrong and requested an interview with him to discuss his opinions on overtime costs and how he will address them. He declined to comment., yet she shared stats with Waters’ office and the police commissioners that are very similar. According to the stats she provided, HPD closed only 30.4% of violent crimes and less than 6% of property crimes reported in 2019. That’s an overall clearance rate of 7.8%.“Are we satisfied with 7.8? Quite frankly, no,” Assistant Police Chief Rade Vanic told police commissioners on Wednesday. “We’re all looking to do better.”During this election season, we hope that our coverage provides you with the information to make informed decisions on issues that you care deeply about.Whether it’s affordable housing, education or the environment, these issues depend on your vote, and&nbsp;our ability to report on them depends on your support.So, if you found value in our coverage,&nbsp;

In just the first nine months of 2020,“The overtime pay is astounding. The word that came to mind is bonkers,” said Honolulu Councilman Tommy Waters, who chairs the public safety committee. “An anonymous source sent Civil Beat a document showing overtime pay for HPD in 2017, 2018 and the first nine months of 2019. An HPD source who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation confirmed that the document was authentic.Separately, Civil Beat obtained a list of the top 30 earners among all city officials for the first nine months of 2020.Waters, who is expected to become the chair of the...

Some Honolulu Police Officers Are Doubling Their Salaries With Overtime

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