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Pigs get paid pretty well.
"Overtime pay is time-and-a-half for Phoenix police. Average overtime pay is $58.38 for an officer; $89.67 for a sergeant; $107.62 for a lieutenant" That means the straight time or normal pay rate of an officer is $38.92/hr, a sergeant is $59.78/hr and a lieutenant is $71.74/hr. Not bad for a job that doesn't even require a high school diploma. Source The issue: Overtime costs incurred by city over Occupy Phoenix protest Who said it: Joseph Yahner, Phoenix's interim police chief by Emily Gersema - November 23, 2011, 3:02 pm What we're looking at Phoenix interim Police Chief Joseph Yahner said Phoenix spent an estimated $204,162 on overtime pay for city employees, and "these estimates capture costs for all City employees involved in the management of protest activity, including Police, Fire, Parks, City Prosecutor, etc." Analysis Phoenix Police Department spokesman Sgt. Trent Crump said, "We need to correct misinformation." Crump said that contrary to what Yahner wrote in the memo, the $204,162 estimate represented only police overtime costs for the first 12 days of the protest and didn't account for overtime pay for employees with any other departments (firefighters, parks workers or prosecutors) who are involved with monitoring, processing paperwork or prosecuting protesters. Crump and Assistant City Manager Ed Zuercher have declined to release information detailing how many officers, both on-duty and working overtime, were assigned to work the protest during those 12 days. They said disclosing that information would reveal too much information to protesters who may be gauging police presence to determine if they can become violent, as has happened with the protests in Oakland. To collect overtime pay, Crump said, officers, sergeants and lieutenants must turn in overtime-pay slips to officials at their respective precincts, so not all of the overtime slips are turned in at the same time. He said that by the end of the year, city officials will have received them all, and that is when they will tally the overtime costs. Updated overtime costs show that in the first three days of protest (Oct. 14-16), the Police Department spent about $181,250 in overtime pay on police -- including lieutenants, sergeants and officers -- to monitor the demonstrations at Cesar Chavez Plaza near City Hall and Margaret T. Hance Park in downtown Phoenix, Crump said. From Oct. 17 to Oct. 25, the department spent an additional $17,489 in overtime pay for officers, sergeants and lieutenants. The amounts Crump provided are preliminary totals based on the city's average overtime pay for officers, sergeants and lieutenants. Crump said the totals for overtime pay will change because city officials are still processing overtime slips related to the protest. Overtime pay is time-and-a-half for Phoenix police. Average overtime pay is $58.38 for an officer; $89.67 for a sergeant; $107.62 for a lieutenant. Unlike in Oakland, the anti-Wall Street protest in Phoenix has not turned violent or shut down major business or city operations, which helps minimize enforcement costs. Bottom line: Contrary to what Yahner wrote in the memo, the estimated $204,162 in overtime pay for 12 protest days excluded overtime pay for city employees outside of the Police Department. Until police administrators have received all of the overtime slips related to protest coverage, it's unclear how much the department has spent on overtime pay. Sources "Phoenix police chief: Occupy Phoenix demonstrations cost city over $200,000," The Arizona Republic, Oct. 30, 2011 |