Faced with massive demonstrations over the murder of George Floyd, the Los Angeles City Council took a dramatic and symbolic step last year, cutting $150 million from the Police Department’s budget and promising to put that money into other social services.
Council members found much of the savings by slashing the funding available for LAPD overtime. But before they did, they received a warning: Many officers would end up working overtime anyway, and if there wasn’t enough money to pay them, those hours would wind up on the city’s so-called credit card.
The predictions, as it turned out, were spot on.
During the budget year that ended June 30, LAPD officers worked more than 680,000 overtime hours for which they have not yet been compensated, according to figures provided to The Times by the LAPD and the city’s financial analysts. Those hours, currently valued at $47.3 million, represent nearly a third of last year’s cut to the LAPD.
Read the full story on LATimes.com.
