01-05-2025
Audit finds San Francisco Police are out of compliance on overtime spending
Audit finds San Francisco Police overtime spending is out of compliance with department policies
Audit finds San Francisco Police overtime spending is out of compliance with department policies
Audit finds San Francisco Police overtime spending is out of compliance with department policies
As San Francisco continues to face a massive budget deficit, an audit of police spending found that the San Francisco Police Department is out of compliance with their own polices related to overtime spending.
The audit found 15 officers worked nearly or more than double a full-time workload.
"They work in dangerous situations, so we do have to be responsive that it's not responsible to put them in these situations." said Anya Worley-Ziegmann with the People's Budget Coalition. "It's not a responsible way to manage a city."
Worley-Ziegmann also lives near downtown, she's not just concerned about overspending by the police department, but also about its ability to keep people safe.
"How can we ask our officers to perform their best work and to be accountable to the highest standards of ethics and of integrity if they're working 80-hour weeks," Worley-Ziegmann questioned. "This is completely remarkable and absolutely unacceptable."
Tracy Gallardo has additional concerns, she is a legislative aid for supervisor Shamann Walton's office and she's a life-long resident of the Mission District.
She's worried officers are working the system to make more overtime.
The audit found officers who were calling out sick, went to work private security jobs within the same 24 hour period. The department is the required to backfill overtime for those officers.
"The question really is, are they getting overtime, then the next day getting sick time, then someone else is getting paid to work the hours overtime, that is inflating our budget," said Gallardo.
She also feels that officers are being concentrated in specific areas.
"I live in a neighborhood where I rarely see police," said Gallardo. "I live in the Mission, I rarely see them. But when I go downtown shopping? Oh my gosh, I'm escorted by police."
Special assignments, like the Union Square Safe Shoppers initiative are almost completely staffed by overtime.
It is part of the 10-B program, which allows individuals, corporations or organizations to request additional police services.
Assistant Chief David Lazar emphasized in the hearing that the officers are not being pulled out of neighborhoods for 10-B assignments.
He says they are doing the best they can while being short hundreds of police officers.
"Crime is down and people are feeling pretty good about the city right now and that's a direct result of the work we're doing," said Lazar.
Lazar also said they have agreed to and already made progress on 26 of the 29 recommendations from the audit.
He says only a few officers work the majority of the overtime because those are the officers that want it, and they don't want to force officers to work overtime.
But Worley-Ziegmann says she questions if the millions of dollars of overtime funding could be better used elsewhere.
"We want to put on the record that people are questioning this," said Worley-Ziegmann. "This is not being rubber stamped by the people even if it is rubberstamped by the board."
