Amid a staffing crunch, Austin police officers raked in nearly $50 million in overtime money

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Scores of Austin police officers earned six figures in overtime last year. Is that sustainable?

Austin police officers get orders at Zilker Park during the Austin City Limits Music Festival in 2019. Officers can get time-and-a-half for working security at these events, directing traffic and being on site if there's a need for police.

While the city won't provide data on the total number of OT hours worked, officers' 2023 salaries — and what they made in overtime — are publicly available.Nine of the top 15 highest-paid city employees were veteran officers. They’re all paid more than the top brass on the fifth floor at APD headquarters.

On top of that, Austin has a lot of events like ACL Fest and SXSW that are staffed by cops who get time-and-a-half for working security, directing traffic and being on site if there's a need for police. "If you start paring back our overtime budget, well, then we're just going to go back to having night shifts and evening shifts and day shifts that are showing up at half-staffed or less, which means in an entire sector that may have 200,000 plus people in it, you have five officers," he said."That's not healthy for the city. That's not an appropriate response level.

 

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