Nassau Police overtime audit reveals management issues

Posted

An audit of Nassau County Police Departmentovertime expenditures revealed systemic issues of under-budgeting, reliance on overly optimistic savings from management initiatives, complex precinct overtime rules and inadequate recordkeeping technology, Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos announced Monday.

The issues have contributed to $96.28 million in higher-than-budgeted overtime costs and $382.27 million in inflated projected savings from attrition from 2009 to 2014, plus $247.58 million in optimistic future estimated savings as a result of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the comptroller said in a press release.

The audit also stated that officers’ contractual paid leave and minimum staffing requirements appear to combine to increase overtime earnings. At any given time, about 33% of officers are out on paid leave necessitating overtime in order to meet minimum staffing requirements.

“Our police department has done an exemplary job in keeping crime low and protecting our residents,” said Maragos. “However, certain management practices need to be revised in order to increase management accountability with predictable economic results, allowing more resources to be directed toward improving public safety.”

The major audit findings were:

1. Police overtime earnings increased 93.7% from 2009 to 2014, totaling $315.20 million, or 44% over the $218.92 million budgeted. Attrition savings in salaries and fringes during the same period were $382.27 million less than the $524.15 million projected by Nassau County Police.

2. The Nassau County Police Department could not provide evidence of the actual dollar savings that resulted from the overtime reduction initiatives started in 2013, including redeploying officers from the Precinct Special Units that were eliminated, limiting federal task force overtime to what is reimbursed by federal agencies, managing arrest overtime, and expediting the hiring of newly graduated officers.

Page 1 / 2